The Federal Aviation Administration has issued an emergency order restricting commercial space launches and reentries to overnight hours only, a move that will significantly impact operations here on the Eastern Range.

Effective November 10, 2025, the FAA will prohibit commercial spaceflight activity between 6:00 am and 10:00 pm. local time, citing air traffic controller staffing shortages and growing concerns about strain on the National Airspace System (NAS).

The decision is part of a broader set of temporary limitations designed to reduce pressure on the country’s aviation infrastructure during the federal shutdown.

Section IV.b. — Prohibition on Commercial Space Launches and Reentries During Peak Hours

“Accordingly, with respect to commercial space launches and reentries, under the authority provided to the FAA Administrator by 49 U.S.C. §§ 40103, 40113, and 46105(c), and authority delegated to the FAA Administrator under 51 U.S.C. § 50909(a), it is hereby ordered that, beginning at 6:00 a.m. EST on November 10, 2025, and until this Order is cancelled, commercial space launches and reentries will only be permitted between 10:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. local time.”

— FAA Emergency Order, November 6, 2025

Immediate Impact On The Cape

The FAA’s emergency order may impact several upcoming missions. That depends on the mission’s classification—whether it is purely commercial in nature or conducted under federal contract on behalf of a federal agency. Here are our unconfirmed educated guesses:

ViaSat-3, a commercial communications satellite operated by ViaSat Inc. and launched by ULA aboard Atlas V, is clearly affected. As a fully commercial mission, it falls under the FAA’s order and cannot be launched between 6 am and 10 pm without a waiver. Any future ViaSat launches will need to comply with the restricted launch window until the order is lifted.

ViaSat-3 has no launch date as of the time of this writing after two scrubs in the past two days.

NG-2 ESCAPADE, the NASA science mission destined for Mars, is launching aboard Blue Origin’s New Glenn as soon as Sunday afternoon. As a federally funded deep space mission on a contracted launch on a commercial rocket, ESCAPADE will likely be granted priority treatment and probably would not be subject to the commercial launch restriction should the launch get delayed from its current planned launch on Sunday afternoon.

Northrop Grumman’s NG-2 mission occupies a more complex position. It is part of NASA’s Commercial Resupply program to ISS,. While the launch vehicle is commercial, the mission itself is flown under a NASA contract. That government link will probably allow it to proceed during restricted hours.

Starlink flights are directly impacted. SpaceX launches these missions for its own broadband satellite constellation and are entirely commercial in nature. As such, they must be scheduled during the FAA’s permitted overnight launch window unless an exception is granted. SpaceX has already been mostly launching Starlink at night, so the limitation may affect them less than one might think. Project Kuiper, the same: it is a commercial enterprise flying on a commercially contracted mission. That means overnight until further notice.

The Emergency Order

You can download the PDF version of the order below, or here at the FAA website.