SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the and-on-the-left-side-of-the-plane-you-will-see-a-launch-of-the... dept.
The Billionaire Space Race Is Making Life Difficult for Airlines
On Feb. 6, Elon Musk's SpaceX launched its largest rocket into the blue Florida sky. Onboard was "Starman," a dummy strapped into the billionaire's cherry red Tesla roadster. Minutes later, fans cheered as Musk topped himself by nailing a simultaneous landing of the Falcon Heavy's boosters. It was arguably a turning point for the commercial space age.
Airlines were somewhat less thrilled. On that day, 563 flights were delayed and 62 extra miles added to flights in the southeast region of the U.S., according to Federal Aviation Administration data released Tuesday by the Air Line Pilots Association, or ALPA.
America's airspace is a finite resource, and the growth of commercial launches has U.S. airlines worried. Whenever Musk or one of his rivals sends up a spacecraft, the carriers which operate closer to the ground must avoid large swaths of territory and incur sizable expenses.
Most of the commercial activity to date has been focused on Cape Canaveral, the Air Force post on Florida's Atlantic coast, where Musk's Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin LLC base their stellar operations. It is one of 22 active U.S. launch sites, and a number of other locales—including Brownsville, Texas; Watkins, Colorado; and Camden County, Georgia—are pursuing new spaceport ventures to capitalize on commercial space activity.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Runaway1956 on Sunday July 01 2018, @04:52AM (3 children)
Somehow, I just can't work up a good damn to give about the airline's difficulties in regards to space flight.
(Score: 2) by lentilla on Sunday July 01 2018, @05:44AM
Agree. Then there's that thing about "sharing": just because I happen to have shared my toys (airspace) with you for the last century without question, and just now I happen to want to use them myself occasionally... then there really is little to complain about.
(Score: 2) by Revek on Sunday July 01 2018, @06:54AM
Agreed, my heart pumps piss for them.
This page was generated by a Swarm of Roaming Elephants
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 01 2018, @06:37PM
i came here to spew some bile about the airline industry too. they want to be suck up to the tyrants and now act surprised about being told what to do. die already.