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Qantas was forced to delay 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 national airline announced on Tuesday that it had postponed several flights between Sydney and Johannesburg in recent weeks, with delays lasting between one and six hours.
Ben Holland, head of Qantas’ operations center, said the dates of recent re-entries of rocket parts belonging to Elon Musk EspaceX had “traveled with late notice,” forcing the airline to delay some flights shortly before their scheduled departure.
He added: “We are in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the rocket’s reentry zones and time windows to minimize future disruption to our passengers on the road.”
Few airlines fly over the southern Indian Ocean, but Qantas has operated the South Africa-Australia service – known as the Wallaby route – since the early 1950s.
This is a route regularly taken by tourists, South Africans living in Australia and mining industry executives.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the U.S. regulator, authorizes all commercial space rocket launches and reentries in the United States, as well as those conducted by U.S. companies abroad.
Rocket launches are usually carefully calibrated to ensure that parts that cannot be reused crash into remote areas of the ocean. The exact location will depend on the flight, with planes and ships advised to avoid the re-entry zone.
Qantas’ warning comes as the pace of launches is expected to increase significantly with several new rockets hitting the market.
Last year, the number of rocket launch attempts reached a record 259 worldwide, of which 256 were successful.
SpaceX accounted for more than half of that number and is expected to increase the pace of launches this year as it puts its giant Starship rocket into service. This week it is expected to make its seventh test flight, although the date was previously pushed back.
Rival rocket company Blue Origin, backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is also expected to fly its New Glenn rocket in the coming days after canceling its maiden flight on Monday due to an icing problem.
It has happened that parts have fallen to earth outside controlled areas. Last year, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was grounded after three incidents involving parts being re-entered outside the controlled landing zone.
Qantas shares fell 2 percent in Australia after revealing flight delays.
SpaceX has been contacted for comment.
