Air Traffic Considerations for Future Spaceports

摘要

As the commercial space launch industry continues to grow, plans for new spaceports from which to base launch and reentry operations continue to take shape. Many of these new spaceports will not be located within special use airspace that is routinely cleared of air traffic, creating potential conflicts and impacts in an airspace system that is itself continuing to grow. Processes for designing space vehicle flight corridors that maximize the utility of a proposed spaceport while minimizing the impact on existing air traffic must be developed in order to provide safe and efficient access to all potential users. The Federal Aviation Administrations Office of Commercial Space Transportation is exploring one such process. Used successfully for the Oklahoma Spaceport, this process examines existing air traffic patterns relative to proposed space vehicle requirements to help identify potential air space for space vehicle testing and operations. The FAA intends to construct a tool capable of performing this and other space and air traffic management functions in the near future.