Cape Canaveral Launchpads - What's the aerospace regulations around those sites?

Posted by ITrCool@reddit | aviation | View on Reddit | 12 comments

I've been enjoying watching the various Artemis II rocket launches people caught from planes while it occurred. But it had me curious about something:

What are FAA regulations for how Cape Canaveral's launchpads are treated when it comes to aerospace and how far around the area planes can fly whether or not launches are happening on that day or not. Is it just always closed aerospace treated similar to a military installation? Is it treated the same as Class B aerospace around airports?

For those of you who fly around that area frequently, I was just curious how all of that technically works. Is it basically "military aerospace, don't fly there"? Or is it treated similar to an airport just heavily restricted?

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False_Measurement843@reddit

I think you mean "aviation" here. Temporary flight restriction (TFR) are issued prior to launch which activate the restricted airspace boxes around Kennedy and Cape Canaveral. Pilots are required to review TFRs before flight and ATC will route you around them if you are talking to them. If you aren't talking to ATC you will be greeted by military aircraft after you fly inside the TFR. When there are no launches you can overfly Kennedy space center with permission and possibly do touch and go landing at the shuttle landing facility

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Remarkable-Object-49@reddit

You can fly down the landing strip, but I’ve heard they are extremely difficult about anyone touching down. I’m guessing they don’t want to do the paperwork if anything happens when some jackleg crashes.

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False_Measurement843@reddit

That's probably what I heard, it's been a while since I've flown down there

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ForsakenRacism@reddit

There are AHA aircraft hazard Areas near launch and re entry where no one can fly. Then there’s THA transitional hazard area which is along the track of the rocket flight path which planes have to cross quickly. Like within 45 degrees of perpendicular, so that they’ll be clear by the time the blown up rocket comes back down.

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flying_wrenches@reddit

They throw up a TFR with active jets in the air already.

As for how far? Don’t remember. But I know there’s that TFR.

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Go_Loud762@reddit

That T in TFR is doing some heavy lifting at Disney.

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mandalorian_guy@reddit

Disney did some heavy lobbying to get it in order to kick the banner aircraft out of line of sight of park guests.

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trying_to_adult_here@reddit

For flights going down the US coast, ATC puts up a TFR and then issues reroutes a few hours prior to launch. Depending on the launch and weather the reroutes can be big or small.

There are a lot of Space-X (and other companies, there is a launch somewhere almost daily but there are tons of Space-X launches) launches out of Cape Canaveral too, and their TFRs and reroutes aren’t as big as Artemis’s were. I dispatch a fair number of flights to FLL and usually the Space-X launches just switch my flights from PRMUS.CUUDA3 down the east coast of Florida to ROKKT.CUUDA3 which is slightly more inland. For the Artemis launch my flights got moved to the west coast of Florida, I think onto TEEKY4.

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ITrCool@reddit (OP)

I see. I figured routes have to adjust during launch windows. Makes a lot of sense! I'm also jealous of those lucky pilots/passengers who got to witness that from in the air. That had to be quite the sight!!

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