Future Florida airline flights could face rerouting and delays lasting 40 minutes to two hours during SpaceX’s Starship-Super Heavy mega-rocket missions at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Federal Aviation Administration projects.
SpaceX seeks FAA licensing to launch and land up to 44 Starships and Super Heavy boosters per year at pad 39A. These temporary airspace hazard closure zones could trigger ground stops at major international airports in Tampa, Orlando, Miami and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood.
“There is the potential that there is going to be significant impact to commercial aviation and the traveling public,” John Tiliacos, chief operating officer of Tampa International Airport, said during a Wednesday, Sept. 3, FAA virtual meeting on Starship.
“And that’s something that certainly the FAA needs to give consideration to and, frankly, come up with a plan to mitigate that,” Tiliacos said.
The FAA fielded public comments from Tiliacos and two dozen other speakers during the two-hour virtual meeting on SpaceX’s bid to bring Starship-Super Heavy operations to pad 39A at KSC. The FAA is studying environmental impacts from the huge rocket system, including temporary airspace hazard areas. Proposed actions:
- Up to 44 Starship-Super Heavy launches per year at pad 39A.
- Up to 44 Super Heavy booster landings per year at pad 39A, on a SpaceX drone ship in the Atlantic Ocean, or expending in the Atlantic Ocean.
- Up to 44 Starship landings per year at pad 39A, on a SpaceX droneship in the Atlantic Ocean, or expending or landing for recovery in the Atlantic, Pacific or Indian oceans.
SpaceX reported the 10th Starship flight test on Aug. 26 achieved all major objectives, marking “a significant step forward” in developing the launch vehicle. But in March, an earlier Starship flight test ended when the colossal rocket broke apart in midair — and fiery debris triggered FAA delays at airports in Orlando, Miami, Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and West Palm Beach.
During public meetings last week at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and Cape Canaveral, FAA officials displayed maps depicting aircraft hazard areas generated by Starship-Super Heavy launches, atmospheric re-entries and landings.
These Starship hazard areas could cause “significant aircraft rerouting,” with ground stops called at multiple airports — potentially triggering flight cancellations. Average expected flight delays:
- Launches and Super Heavy booster landings: About 40 minutes to two hours, impacting 133 to 400 commercial aircraft during peak daily travel periods.
- Starship reentries and landings: About 40 minutes to one hour, impacting 400 to 600 commercial aircraft during peak daily travel periods.
FAA passenger boarding data ranks Orlando as the nation’s ninth busiest airport, followed by Miami at No. 10. Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood ranks 18th and Tampa ranks 27th.
Launch and Super Heavy booster-landing airspace closures will occur over portions of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and the Bahamas. Beyond that, Starship re-entries may also require airspace closures over portions of the Pacific Ocean, Gulf of America, Mexico, El Salvador, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras and Cuba.
“The location and size of airspace closures for commercial space operations also vary with each mission type and are influenced by multiple factors including prior flight history. The size of airspace closures can grow or shrink as reliability is either decreased or increased with results and analysis from each launch,” a narrator said during an FAA video presentation.
During his remarks, Tiliacos said, “we have no issue with the space program.” Rather, he is concerned by Starship and SpaceX’s increasing cadence of launches. He referenced an FAA final environmental assessment — which was released hours before Wednesday’s meeting — that found SpaceX’s plan to escalate Falcon 9 rocket launches from 50 to 120 per year from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station will generate “no significant impact.”
Hundreds of Falcon 9s have launched from the Cape in recent years, and they generate smaller airspace and waterway navigational hazard zones than those proposed for Starship-Super Heavy.
Merritt Island resident Steve Jangelis is aviation safety chair with the Air Line Pilots Association, International. The group is the world’s largest airline pilot union, representing more than 78,000 pilots with 41 U.S. and Canadian airlines.
During Wednesday’s virtual meeting, Jangelis asked the FAA and SpaceX to release aerial debris mapping data from previous Starship flight mishaps. He said the agency should consider SpaceX is a for-profit business that will damage and harm other for-profit businesses with its operations.
In a June 2024 letter, ALPA asked the FAA to conduct a comprehensive impact assessment on Starship’s airspace impacts from KSC. These details could include environmental and operational impacts from airspace closures such as longer flight routes, additional fuel burn and carbon emissions, longer flight duration, and impacts on surrounding airports.
The FAA’s 410-page Starship environmental impact statement said the agency “would manage such operations in a way that minimizes disruption to existing aviation operations and ensures safety for all airspace users.”
“Key factors contributing to feasibility include enhanced real-time communication systems and well-defined scheduling and deconfliction procedures,” the statement said.
“Although temporary airspace closures may impact other stakeholders, mitigation strategies such as pre-coordinated reroutes, dynamic scheduling, and time-based traffic flow management could reduce operational burdens,” the statement said.
Greg Donovan, executive director of Melbourne Orlando International Airport, said he is not aware of any potential Starship airspace restrictions at his location.
“The FAA controls all air traffic control matters but at MLB, we have encountered zero delays or restrictions with our flight operations, mainly because we are close to the Atlantic and are able to broaden the arrival and departure corridors better than Central Florida between TPA and MCO,” Donovan said in a statement, referring to the Tampa and Orlando airports.
“Throughout the entire history of the nearby space program, including the shuttle days, MLB has enjoyed unhindered accessibility and are unaware of any significant changes with the Starship or SLS missions. It also helps that we don’t have the congestion that MCO has,” Donovan said.
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Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter/X: @RickNeale1