Launch Site Airspace Optimization Addressed by the FAA
Due to the increasing pace of space activity, the FAA is working to optimize launch site airspace to better balance the needs of launch licensees, as well as airlines, general aviation and the military to minimize disruptions.
The agency intends to use a set of objective factors to determine whether a commercial space operation may proceed as requested or whether an alternative time is necessary.
Optimization of launch site airspace will be assessed against multiple criteria:
The location and timing of the proposed commercial space operation
The number of flights and/or passengers that will be affected by the operation
Holidays or significant events that result in more NAS congestion generally or in specific areas of the country (e.g., Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Spring break, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Super Bowl, significant military operations/exercises)
Launch window duration
Nighttime v. daytime launches: The FAA encourages commercial space operations to take place during nighttime hours (to the extent practicable) when other flight operations tend to be reduced
Mission purpose: The FAA generally will prioritize commercial space operations that (1) have a national security purpose or are in the national interest and/or (2) commercial space launches carrying payloads.
The agency is providing these factors to the public to inform them about how it will ensure fair and equitable access to launch site airspace.
At the end of June, the agency will convene the aviation and space industries to continue collaborating and later will launch the Airspace Access Priorities Aviation Rulemaking Committee. That work is in addition to the use of tools and procedures (e.g., Space Data Integrator) that have cut airspace closures to an average of two hours instead of four hours per launch.
The Space Data Integrator (SDI) is the first of several new capabilities that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is developing to further the safe integration of launch and reentry vehicles into the National Airspace System (NAS). SDI is an operational prototype that will receive and distribute launch and reentry data for initial use within the NAS to enable improved situational awareness and airspace management decision-making.
While Launch and Reentry Operators (LROs) monitor their missions and vehicles in real-time, the FAA relied heavily on manual processes to retrieve and communicate space data. To monitor a mission, the FAA Air Traffic Organization (ATO) Space Operations team, located at the David J. Hurley Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC), would manually gather operational data and send the data using FAA communications tools to adapt airspace usage with launch and reentry operations. SDI will provide some much-needed automation to improve the current operation.
(Source: FAA news releases. Images from file and FAA YouTube video)