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Comment by thesausageking | Hacker News Reader

How does the right to send things into orbit work today? Can anyone just launch whatever they want up?

Individuals and companies need permits from their respective governments, but the governments can launch (or permit their citizens/companies to launch) pretty much anything they want that does not disrupt other countries spacecraft and does not fall on their land. They can also deny permits for any arbitrary reasons, though multinational companies might seek another "flag nation" in that case.

There are orbits assigned but then there are also spy satellites which I don't think are getting an assignment. Would like to know more about this.

In the US it has to be approved by the FCC

Does the FCC co-ordinate with other FCC equivalent agencies around the world? Or is everyone just doing their own thing?

In general, the United Nations, by means of the International Telecommunications Union, coordinates orbital assignments between member nations [1]. In the US, the FCC mediates for the American satellites to the ITU, so the FCC, as a member of the ITU, approves satellite orbital assignments [2]. In addition, the FAA plays a role in approving satellite launches as a matter of air traffic and safety, etc. [3]. The FAA doesn't get involved once the satellite is in space though.

As an example, one US company got in legal hot water by trying to skirt around the FCC in getting its satellites to orbit [4].

[1]. https://www.itu.int/en/plenipotentiary/2014/newsroom/Documen...

[2]. https://www.fcc.gov/general/international-bureau-satellite-d...

[3]. https://www.faa.gov/space/legislation_regulation_guidance/

[4]. https://qz.com/1503575/swarm-technologies-settles-illegal-la...

The trick is that they don't just need the FCC for the orbit clearances the FCC also deals with spectrum management in the US and Starlink needs similar approval to have (legal) nodes in any country they want to have customers in.

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