Space Traffic Integration

Integration of rocket launches into the airspace

Space Traffic Integration

Integration of rocket launches into the airspace

Increasing space activities

The increasing commercialisation of space activities in the New Space domain will lead to significantly more launches of spacecraft in the future, both globally and in Europe.

Launch Coordination Center – from the ground to space

To this end, the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance in Braunschweig is setting up a Launch Coordination Center (LCC). The LCC will demonstrate how a large number of launches and re-entries can be safely and flexibly coordinated with air traffic and maritime navigation activities in the future. It will assist and support missions from planning through to real-time monitoring and evaluation.

The Institute is developing a planning component and a flight management component that will monitor missions from launch through airspace to the interface with space operations, where they will become the responsibility of a space control centre, such as DLR’s German Space Operations Center (GSOC). The system will optimise integration into air traffic operations and support logistics at the spaceport.

The LCC will be compatible with all types of rockets, spacecraft and mission variants during launch and landing and will optimise the use of the limited resource of airspace. This will be all the more important if, as predicted, the number of launches in Europe increases.

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Contact

Dirk-Roger Schmitt (DLR)