Commercial rockets make life difficult for airlines

Justin Bachman, Bloomberg

Posted at 07:11, Saturday 30 June 2018

On February 6th, SpaceX's Elon Musk launches his largest rocket in the blue sky of Florida. On board was "Starman", a manikin attached to the Billionaire's cherry-red Tesla roadster. A few minutes later, fans cheered as Musk outdid himself by nailing a simultaneous landing of the Falcon Heavy boosters. It was undoubtedly a turning point for the commercial space era.

Airlines were a little less enthusiastic. That day, 563 flights were delayed and an additional 62 miles were added to flights in the southeastern United States, according to data from the Federal Aviation Administration released Tuesday by the Airline Pilots Association or Air Canada. ALPA

. and the growth of commercial launches worries American airlines. Whenever Musk or one of his rivals sends a spacecraft, carriers that operate closer to the ground must avoid large portions of territory and incur considerable expense.

The bulk of commercial activity so far has been concentrated on Cape Canaveral. Post office on the Atlantic coast of Florida, where Space Exploration Technologies Corp. of Jeff Bezos' Musk and Blue Origin base their stellar operations. This is one of 22 active launch sites in the United States and a number of other locations, including Brownsville, Texas; Watkins, Colorado; and Camden County, Georgia, are pursuing new space projects to take advantage of commercial space activities.

Bezos takes off land he owns in West Texas; Virgin Group founder Richard Branson plans to launch tourists from southern New Mexico next year; and Musk is planning a possible new SpaceX launchpad in the far south of Texas, near South Padre Island. While this trio of space magnates is currently dominating the fledgling industry, more companies will soon join the party. And the potential for what could be daily launches has major implications for air travel.

"The commercial space launch needs to be better integrated into the national airspace," noted Caryn Schenewerk, Hawthorne, California. government affairs. The Falcon 9 exceeds 60,000 feet at launch "in 90 fast seconds", with its reusable rocket propellers requiring only the use of airspace for one minute before landing.

Tim Canoll is president of ALPA, the union that represents 60,000 US and Canadian drivers. He warns that the work is needed to make the two industries work seamlessly, arguing at a recent hearing of a Washington sub-committee on transportation and infrastructure that FAA operations do not have no "real-time data" on rocket movements. The US has authorized only 23 commercial launches last year, but this is expected to increase. As the launch industry evolves, the ultimate goal is to incorporate spacecraft into the routine flow of the 42,000 daily aircraft controlled by the FAA, making a SpaceX Falcon 9 destined for the International Space Station no different from an American A321 to Miami. "The next step," said Mr. Canoll, "is to consolidate space travel and air travel so that rockets can work with us."

There is a lot of money involved. The airlines claim that the average cost of "blocking time", an industry measure for the period of driving or taxiing, was 68, $ 48 per minute in 2017, or $ 4,109 per hour. The average delay of these 563 flights on February 6 was 8 minutes. For the prospect, 10 flights delayed by 10 minutes cost about $ 70,000, noted ALPA. To make matters worse, the hourly average is likely to increase this year, further exacerbating airline executives and pilots every time a SpaceX or United Launch Alliance rocket closes airspace

" These restrictions have resulted in significant and costly delays for commercial air traffic The ALPA said in a white paper

The US airline trade group, Airlines for America (A4A), urged the FAA to " carefully consider the impacts on safety and efficiency for the traveling public. "plan of integration, said spokesperson Alison McAfee in an email.For example, the group expressed its" serious concerns " this month about a Colorado Spaceport project, which would be located in a small airport less than 10 miles southeast of Denver International, the fifth busiest airport in the United States. has become the norm since the FAA continues to restrict airspace for commercial launches and re-entry, often for an hour or more. The closed space can extend for hundreds of kilometers along the planned trajectory of a rocket, considering the potential risks if a craft explodes in flight. This area will need to shrink over time to minimize airline disruption, industry experts told Congress. Specifically, they stated that computer simulations of such disasters block more airspace than necessary.

In March, the FAA formed an aviation committee to develop recommendations for a regulatory approach to the commercial pitcher industry. Tests have shown that rocket telemetry data can flow into current air traffic control systems and give controllers real-time knowledge of vehicle movement. . Of course, air traffic controllers direct the trajectory and speed of an airplane – a power that they will not have with space vehicles.

Audrey Powers, Deputy Director General of Blue Origin, told the House: "This is a very soluble problem. 19659011] The industry and regulators need to develop tools to help build a spatial data integration system, designed to automate the flow of rocket data in real time and release of space blocked air. to resolve this problem. "