FAA Marks Additional Space Launch Activity Areas on Pilot Navigational Charts

The Federal Aviation Administration has added more space launch activity areas on pilot navigation charts. All FAA-licensed spaceports and launch and reentry sites on the charts are labeled with a rocket symbol.

Marking additional space launch activity areas on the navigation charts promotes increased pilot safety and airspace awareness, the FAA said.

These areas are located in Alaska, California, Colorado, Florida, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia. The list of FAA-licensed spaceports includes the Pacific Spaceport Complex Alaska, Mojave Air & Spaceport, Vandenberg Spaceport, Colorado Air & Spaceport, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Space Florida Launch Complex 46, Cape Canaveral Spaceport/Shuttle Landing Facility, Space Coast Regional Airport, Oklahoma Spaceport, Blue Origin West Texas Launch Site and Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Wallops Flight Facility.

The addition of the space launch activity areas comes amid the expected continued growth of commercial space operations.

The FAA expects to license at least 50 commercial space launches and reentries within the year. That estimate exceeds the 41 launch licenses that the FAA gave in 2020, the most in the agency’s history.

For the first five months of 2021, the agency already licensed 17 launches by SpaceX. These include Falcon 9 launches of Starlink satellites and the Crew-2 mission.

The FAA also licensed launches by Blue Origin, Virgin Orbit, Rocket Lab Global and Orbital Sciences.