Qantas postpones flights to avoid SpaceX rocket parts

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Qantas has been forced to postpone flights between Australia and South Africa after the US government warned the airline of the risk of SpaceX rocket parts re-entering the atmosphere in the southern Indian Ocean.

The Australian airline said on Tuesday that it had postponed several flights between Sydney and Johannesburg over the past few weeks, with delays ranging from one hour to six hours.

Ben Holland, head of the operations center at Qantas, said that the timing of the recent return of parts of rockets owned by Elon Musk to the atmosphere. SpaceX It “moved late,” forcing the airline to delay some flights shortly before their scheduled departure.

“We are in contact with SpaceX to see if they can optimize the areas and time windows for the rocket’s re-entry to minimize future disruption to our passengers on the way,” he added.

Few airlines fly through the remote southern Indian Ocean region, however Qantas It has operated the service from South Africa to Australia – known as the Wallaby Route – since the early 1950s.

It is a route regularly used by tourists, South Africans living in Australia and mining industry executives.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the US regulatory body, licenses all commercial space rocket launches and reentries within the United States, as well as those conducted by US companies abroad.

Rocket launches are usually carefully calibrated to ensure that parts that cannot be reused fall into remote areas of the ocean. The exact location will depend on the flight, as planes and ships are asked to avoid the return area.

Qantas’s warning comes at a time when the launch rate is expected to rise significantly with several new rockets entering the market.

Last year, attempts to launch missiles reached a record number of 259 attempts worldwide, and 256 of them proved successful.

SpaceX represents more than half of this number and is expected to increase the pace of launches this year as its giant Starship rocket enters service. It is expected to make its seventh test flight this week, although the date was previously postponed.

Rival rocket company Blue Origin, backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is also scheduled to launch its New Glenn rocket in the coming days after its maiden flight was canceled on Monday due to an icing problem.

There were occasions when parts fell back to the ground outside of controlled areas. Last year, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket was grounded after three incidents that involved parts re-entering outside the controlled landing zone.

Qantas shares fell 2 per cent in Australia after it revealed flight delays.

SpaceX has been contacted for comment.