Unfortunately, the article title is somewhat incomplete, as the restriction on commercial rocket launches is only for certain hours (for now, at least):
> Accordingly, with respect to commercial space launches and reentries, under the
authority provided to the FAA Administrator by 49 U.S.C. §§ 40103, 40113, and 46105(c), and
authority delegated to the FAA Administrator under 51 U.S.C. § 50909(a), it is hereby ordered that, beginning at 6:00 a.m. EST on November 10, 2025, and until this Order is cancelled, Commercial space launches and reentries will only be permitted between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time.
> commercial launches to space can only take place between the hours of 10 p.m. EST (0300 GMT) and 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT),
That's going to really piss off everyone around Ventura, CA (they get the sonic-boom when landing a booster on a barge for most launch trajectories from Vandenberg).
These orders, while written like they're orders, seem to be suggestions? They first ordered 20% flight reductions at major hubs, and 10% at minor hubs. Now the airlines have cancelled low single digit percentages. This is easily viewable at flightaware. https://www.flightaware.com/live/cancelled/today
If this were really about safety it would be all rockets, not just commercial. It's not like saying "nobody fly in this area at this time" is actually difficult.
Ok, now how small can they make this window? How much is the fine compared to missing several launch windows? I envision a point on a graph where it is still profitable for SpaceX to launch and ignore the FAA should they collapse the launch window to 2 nights/month or thereabout. If the FAA is forced to continue maintaining US airspace with a skeleton crew, someone will absolutely try and get away with launching more than they should.
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[ 4.8 ms ] story [ 40.5 ms ] threadUnfortunately, the article title is somewhat incomplete, as the restriction on commercial rocket launches is only for certain hours (for now, at least):
> Accordingly, with respect to commercial space launches and reentries, under the authority provided to the FAA Administrator by 49 U.S.C. §§ 40103, 40113, and 46105(c), and authority delegated to the FAA Administrator under 51 U.S.C. § 50909(a), it is hereby ordered that, beginning at 6:00 a.m. EST on November 10, 2025, and until this Order is cancelled, Commercial space launches and reentries will only be permitted between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time.
That's going to really piss off everyone around Ventura, CA (they get the sonic-boom when landing a booster on a barge for most launch trajectories from Vandenberg).
1. When an FAA owned and operated facility does not have adequate staffing levels, ATC may elect not to provide the following services:
a. Radar Traffic Information Service;
b. Radar Assistance to visual flight rule (VFR) aircraft;
c. Terminal Radar Services for VFR aircraft;
d. VFR Traffic Pattern Operations;
e. Practice Approaches to VFR aircraft;
f. Flight checks services to restore inoperable equipment and approaches;
g. ATC services to parachute operations; or,
h. ATC services to certain special or unusual operations