Well, That Didn’t Last Long

Overnight, the FAA announced that it had terminated its emergency orders reducing plane flights as well as commercial space launch hours.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford Announce Termination of FAA Emergency Order, Return to Normal Operations

The following restrictions will also end:

Limits on some general aviation operations at 12 airports

Limits on some visual flight rule approaches at facilities with staffing triggers

Limits on commercial space launches and reentries to the hours between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time

Limits on parachute operations and photo missions near facilities with staffing triggers

Only three days earlier, on November 13, the FAA had “made permanent” the rules it rescinded yesterday.

“Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS and allows us to return to normal operations,” said FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford. “I am grateful for the hard work of the FAA safety and operations teams and for their focus on the safety of the traveling public.”

Good News For SpaceX Especially

The rescission of the emergency order is good news for all launch services companies, but especially for SpaceX. They have a high cadence of Starlink launches on both coasts, and while they usually launch in the late hours of the evening or early hours overnight, there are many times when orbital mechanics demand a launch between 6am and 10pm — the hours formerly restricted.

Tomorrow’s Starlink launch, for example. The launch window opens at 6:29 PM ET, and extends until 10:29 PM ET the same day. While SpaceX could have waited until 10 PM to launch Starlink 6-94, they would undoubtedly prefer to have the ability launch earlier legally.

Now they can.

Author: Charles Boyer

NASA kid from Cocoa Beach, FL, born of Project Apollo parents and family. I’m a writer and photographer sharing the story of spaceflight from the Eastern Range here in Florida.