NASA has officially intervened in the licensing process for a massive project called Sunrise by Jeff Bezos' company, Blue Origin. The project envisions deploying a constellation of 51,600 satellites at altitudes between 500 and 1,800 km. The company aims to drastically reduce computing costs by moving data processing centers into space. This is reported by Ixbt.com .
However, NASA considers this plan technically insufficiently justified and calls it a threat to the stability of the space environment. The agency sent an official letter of protest to the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), emphasizing that placing satellites at an altitude of 1,800 km poses a risk to crewed spaceflights and scientific facilities.
NASA is also concerned that the Blue Origin project does not clearly define procedures for deorbiting satellites once their service life ends. This could lead to a sharp increase in space debris. For comparison, under pressure from the international community, SpaceX committed to keeping Starlink satellites at altitudes below 500 km.
Interestingly, Amazon had previously criticized SpaceX's Starcloud project. Now, Blue Origin faces criticism from NASA and other competitors regarding its technical plans. Nevertheless, NASA positively noted that Blue Origin's project includes measures to mitigate the impact on astronomical observations.
The final decision now rests with the FCC. The regulator may either reject the project or require Blue Origin to provide detailed technical information on how satellites will be coordinated with NASA assets and how orbital pollution will be prevented.
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