As developers explore placing data centers in low-Earth orbit, proposals for more than 1 million data center satellites are raising novel questions about how US environmental review requirements could apply to infrastructure that operates in space but may produce environmental effects closer to home.
In a recent LawFlash, Orbital Data Centers Could Put National Environmental Policy Act to the Test in Space, partners Jared Wilkerson and Robert Bolgar-Smith and associate Heidi Rasmussen examine a July 2026 petition asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to pause consideration of orbital data center applications and conduct a programmatic environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
The petition focuses on potential cumulative effects from launches, satellite reentries, orbital debris, light pollution, and impacts on astronomy.
The LawFlash highlights how the petition arrives as the FCC is reconsidering its own approach to environmental review. In 2025, the FCC proposed excluding space-based operations from NEPA, on the grounds that the activities and their effects occur entirely outside US jurisdiction, while also seeking comment on whether some space operations or their effects occur within US jurisdiction.
The authors discuss questions that could shape how NEPA applies to orbital data centers, including whether an FCC satellite license requires environmental review, whether NEPA can apply to a federal decision authorizing activity in outer space, and which environmental effects are sufficiently connected to the FCC’s licensing decision to require consideration.
The US Supreme Court’s 2025 decision in Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, which addressed the scope of environmental effects that agencies must consider under NEPA, could be particularly relevant to the latter question.
The outcome could have practical consequences for orbital data center developers beyond the environmental review itself. Additional NEPA review for large-scale orbital systems could affect licensing strategy, application timing, environmental records, and coordination among agencies that are responsible for different stages of a space system’s lifecycle.
As orbital computing approaches deployment, these questions could help determine how an emerging class of data center infrastructure fits within existing federal licensing and environmental review frameworks.