Qantas Airlines has delayed several flights between Australia and South Africa in recent weeks – sometimes by six hours – due to warnings of possible falling debris from SpaceX rockets returning from space.
Ben Holland, Qantas’ chief operating officer, said in an email that his company had received warnings from U.S. authorities that covered a large part of the Indian Ocean without prior notice, causing delays to flights between Sydney and Johannesburg. According to The Guardian, warnings of approaching SpaceX debris also affected South African Airways flights.
“Although we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the times of recent launches have been changed with late notice, meaning we have had to delay some flights just before departure. Our teams notify customers of changes to their flight as soon as we know it may affect them,” Holland said, adding, “We are in contact with SpaceX to see if they can clarify the areas and time windows for the rocket’s re-entries to minimize future disruption to our passengers on the route.”
Since the beginning of the year, SpaceX has made eight launches, including Wednesday’s Falcon 9 launch with two launch vehicles built by private space companies, Firefly and ispace, headed for the moon. The company also tried to launch the seventh test flight of its Starship megaship, but the mission was postponed several times due to weather conditions. Currently, the launch is scheduled for today (you can watch it live here). During these previous test flights, SpaceX plans a gentle drop of the upper stage in the Indian Ocean, and the upcoming test is no different.
As the frequency of commercial space launches increases, so does their potential impact on ground passenger transportation. This impact is being amplified by advances in rocket technology that allow companies such as SpaceX to recover and reuse key components such as boosters. Not all parts of rockets can be recycled, however; some, such as heat shields or upper stage debris, are designed to either burn up on reentry or fall into designated areas, adding to the complexity of managing and tracking what goes up and what inevitably comes back down.
In November, the US Federal Aviation Administration released a draft environmental impact assessment of SpaceX’s proposal to increase the number of Starship launches from its base in Boca Chica, Texas. The company’s plans included landing some rockets in the Indian Ocean, which could potentially affect a huge swath of airspace between Australia and Africa, according to FAA charts.
“The FAA often provides data to missile launch operators to avoid operations on days with high air traffic volumes and to determine times with minimal impact,” the agency wrote. “However, the FAA recognizes that while these operating windows minimize disruption to the [National Airspace System], they likely increase disruption to passengers traveling near scheduled launch or landing operations.”
Each of the 25 Starship launches for which SpaceX has requested authorization will include two landings – the Starship itself and its super-heavy first stage.
The delays with Qantas are not the first time SpaceX has disrupted commercial airlines’ schedules. In 2018, Elon Musk’s publicity stunt, in which a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket launched a Tesla Roadster into space, caused a 4,645-minute flight delay, according to a Vox report. And before the FAA changed its procedures in 2023, a typical rocket launch from Florida could force 36 flights to be re-routed, resulting in 300 minutes of delays and 1,500 extra miles.
