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Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by hinkley on Friday September 30, 2022 @05:00PM (#33040727)
In this case it's policy reflecting Little's Law:

    population = arrival rate X duration of visit
If suddenly someone wants to launch twice as many satellites, you either have to reduce tenancy or accept a higher population in the system. If you have a policy that's at most 25 years and a lot of satellites de-orbit in say 15 years on average, you can still triple your launches by pulling that down to 5.

I am worried though, do we really build satellites that are expected to only work for 5 years? Are we disincentivizing people from building 20 year satellites this way?

Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by ntrz on Friday September 30, 2022 @05:18PM (#33040930)
The article says "5 years after completing their mission", not 5 years after launch.
Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by hinkley on Saturday October 01, 2022 @11:11AM (#33047166)
Wait, really? What orbital mechanics take five years to achieve? Lunar assisted orbital insertion burns only take a year or two, right? Why wouldn’t the deorbit burn start the day after decommissioning?
Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by zardo on Saturday October 01, 2022 @12:14PM (#33047675)
If it takes 5 years, there is no deorbit burn.
Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by hahajk on Friday September 30, 2022 @06:07PM (#33041432)
time to assign 25 year missions to satellites built to last 10 years!
Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by simonh on Saturday October 01, 2022 @04:16AM (#33044952)
Every mission has to pass FCC approval, and we're just discussing a super high level gloss of the rules. Thee's no way that would pass, so that's really not an issue.
Re:FCC Approves 5 Year Satellite Deorbiting Rule by Fatnino on Friday September 30, 2022 @05:16PM (#33040912)
I assume it means deorbit within 5 years after the satellite is decommissioned.