The Briefing Room
General Category => National/Breaking News => Topic started by: Elderberry on August 07, 2019, 01:06:43 am
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Click Orlando by Mike DeForest 8/6/2019
Airspace restrictions off Space Coast cost airlines time, money
With two rockets scheduled to lift off from the Space Coast this week, airspace around Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station could be restricted for more than six hours.
As the commercial space industry pushes for as many as 48 launches per year from the Space Coast, aviation experts predict that airline delays will continue to grow.
When a Telsa automobile and a mannequin nicknamed Starman were launched into space aboard a test flight of a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket in February 2018, a roughly 1,300 mile-long path across the Atlantic Ocean was closed to aircraft for more than three hours the Washington Post reported.
That single rocket launched caused 563 airline flights to be delayed, including 121 flights in and out of Orlando International Airport, according to a report published by the Air Line Pilots Association International.
More: https://www.clickorlando.com/news/space-news/what-a-space-coast-rocket-launch-means-for-your-commercial-airline-flight (https://www.clickorlando.com/news/space-news/what-a-space-coast-rocket-launch-means-for-your-commercial-airline-flight)
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Seems to me it would be a good idea to keep airplanes away from launch paths? Maybe they're being too aggressive with flight restrictions....
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Seems to me it would be a good idea to keep airplanes away from launch paths? Maybe they're being too aggressive with flight restrictions....
Being aggressive with flight restrictions is pretty much the same as keeping airplanes away from launch paths. Orlando International is several minutes from Cape Canaveral at aircraft speed (okay, it's a bit more than "several" but it's close enough that if you wanted to stop any hanky-panky you'd need to already have fighters in the air, and even then the time for decision making is pretty slim).
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Good graphics of the impact on flights at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/business/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-faa-air-traffic/ (https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/business/spacex-falcon-heavy-launch-faa-air-traffic/)