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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: 3, Interesting) by martyb on Sunday July 01 2018, @11:17AM (1 child)
Another way to look at it is how much commercial aviation is there, now, compared to back then? I would hazard a guess that there are far more flights, now. More flights would lead to more interrupted flight plans, for any given rocket launch.
Relatedly, besides a no-fly zone, launches cause restrictions on watercraft, too. The cruise industry is not especially happy that they have to change routes, or loiter offshore waiting. Add in launch delays that might happen within a launch window... yeah, that could be a bother, too.
Lastly, I suspect the issue is not just whether or not an errant rocket might actually hit a craft (in the air or on the water), but if the rocket undergoes RUD [wiktionary.org], one would like to keep all vessels safe from any possible explosive debris!
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 01 2018, @12:42PM
The population of florida was ~5 million in 1969. It is ~21 million today. Also air travel is MUCH more safe and MUCH cheaper. So it is probably pretty crowded around there. So that many flights got delayed/shunted is not surprising. It sounds like a large number but if you look at total flights you may find the % is much smaller than the numbers look.