New tool limits disruptions caused by Space operations: FAA

The Federal Aviation Administration of the US said it has got a new tool — Space Data Integrator — which will help them track rocket launches and Space vehicles returning to Earth in a better way.

The toll will replace a system in which much of the work of giving telemetry data about Space vehicles to air traffic control managers is done manually.

They said the new tool automates the near-instantaneous delivery of data about a Space vehicle’s flight path to the nation’s air traffic control system.

According to the FAA, Elon Musk’s SpaceX was the first company to share flight telemetry data with the FAA, and others, including Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin, have also joined the program.

The FAA said the new technology was first used on June 30 for the launch of SpaceX’s Transporter 2, which lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying dozens of satellites into orbit. It will be used again with the pending return of a SpaceX cargo ship from the International Space Station.

During Space operations, the FAA shuts a huge section of airspace for hours in case the rocket or the Space vehicle breaks apart. Airlines must reroute flights, which causes them to burn more fuel and fall behind schedule. A single launch can affect hundreds of flights.

According to the FAA, there were 45 Space launches and reentries last year, a record, and that could rise to more than 70 this year.

The FAA said other changes it has already made have reduced airspace closures from an average of more than four hours to a little more than two hours for a launch.

https://www.faa.gov/