In The NoCo

The number of satellites circling the Earth is increasing. A unique summit at CU looks at why that might be a problem

By In The NoCo,

Published June 25, 2025 at 5:40 AM MDT

Ways To Subscribe

A man in a grey sweatshirt smiles at the camera. — The University of Colorado Boulder is hosting the Space and Spectrum Policy Conference to discuss questions around regulating space as a resource. Professor Keith Gremban helped organize the conference.

The vast space around Earth is getting a little crowded.

There are nearly 10,000 satellites in Earth’s low orbit, the space just outside our planet’s atmosphere. And space companies plan to launch tens of thousands more in coming years.

That could lead to problems like interruptions to communications from satellites that monitor the weather. Or we could see satellites crashing into one another.

So how do we make rules to prevent those kinds of accidents? And how much regulation of space is too much?

A unique gathering at the University of Colorado Law School this week is confronting those questions. The Space and Spectrum Policy Conference began Tuesday.

Keith Gremban is a professor and co-director of the Spectrum Policy Initiative at CU Boulder and he helped organize this conference. He spoke with In The NoCo’s Brad Turner about why one of the main goals for the conference is simply to raise awareness of these issues.

For more on the dark sky preservation programs Keith mentioned, check out this In The NoCo interview on dark sky programs across Colorado.

Tags

In The NoCo Space CU Boulder space exploration Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

In The NoCo

KUNC's In The NoCo is a daily slice of stories, news, people and issues. It's a window to the communities along the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The show brings context and insight to the stories of the day, often elevating unheard voices in the process. And because life in Northern Colorado is a balance of work and play, we celebrate the lighter side of things here, too.

See stories by In The NoCo

Ariel Lavery

Ariel Lavery grew up in Louisville, Colorado and has returned to the Front Range after spending over 25 years moving around the country. She co-created the podcast Middle of Everywhere for WKMS, Murray State University’s NPR member station, and won Public Media Journalism awards in every season she produced for Middle of Everywhere. Her most recent series project is "The Burn Scar", published with The Modern West podcast. In it, she chronicles two years of her family’s financial and emotional struggle following the loss of her childhood home in the Marshall Fire.

See stories by Ariel Lavery

Brad Turner

Brad Turner is an executive producer in KUNC's newsroom. He manages the podcast team that makes In The NoCo, which also airs weekdays in Morning Edition and All Things Considered. His work as a podcaster and journalist has appeared on NPR's Weekend Edition, NPR Music, the PBS Newshour, Colorado Public Radio, MTV Online, the Denver Post, Boulder's Daily Camera, and the Longmont Times-Call.

See stories by Brad Turner