Environmental groups urge FCC to stop Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai's satellite plans
Environmental groups, including Earthjustice and DarkSky International, have petitioned the FCC to halt the approval of orbital data center projects proposed by companies like SpaceX and Blue Origin. The petitioners argue that the FCC must conduct a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement to assess the cumulative risks these millions of satellites pose to the ozone layer, the night sky, and the stratosphere.
Why it matters
This conflict highlights a growing regulatory tension between the rapid expansion of space-based AI infrastructure and the environmental oversight required to protect Earth's atmosphere and orbital environment.
In January this year, SpaceX filed an application with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for a constellation of up to one million satellites that would be the foundation for an orbital AI data center. And Spacex is not alone in what has become a race to compute in space. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has voiced similar aspirations for his rocket and AI ventures, Blue Origin and Prometheus, respectively. In an interview inlate 2025, Bezos said that building data centers in space is “very realistic,” though questioned how long it might take. Google-parent Alphabet too has entered the race through a collaboration with Earth observation satellite maker Planet Labs on Project Suncatcher, an orbital data center initiative. In March, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin submitted plans to the FCC to launch 51,600 data center satellites into low Earth orbit as part of its Project Sunrise initiative.
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