Spaceport Operations in Europe

Abstract

Commercial Space Transportation (CST) has become an international business and requires landing opportunities all over the world. Hence the integration of space vehicles in airspace other than the United States NAS is an important topic to be considered. The Single European Sky ATM Research Programme (SESAR) is preparing the implementation of a new ATM system in Europe. With the commercialization of Space Operations under way, the number of Space Vehicle Operations is expected to increase significantly in the upcoming years. Areas of operation will expand from the current established and well known spaceports (e.g. Cape Canaveral, Vandenberg AFB, etc.) towards new operational sites. The development of spaceports is not only expected to take place in the United States but in other countries as well. If the expected cost reduction for space vehicle operation can be realized and commercial space operations established independent of national research and space programs, the number of launch and re-entry activities will increase together with the number of possible launch and landing sites. Operating a spaceport in a remote location with low population density might be an adequate approach in the early stages of expanding commercial space operations. However, the business of CST reaches Europe (which has a high density population as well as a busy airspace in most areas) launch and re-entry trajectories of space vehicles will most probably have to interact with air traffic operations. As air traffic has increased over the last decades and is expected to continue its growth, this aspect will gain further importance, and integrating both kinds of operations (ATM and STM) should be as seamless and efficient as possible. A study was conducted at the Air Traffic Validation Center of the DLR using real and fast time simulations. The results show the way in which the impact of space vehicle landing trajectories on other air traffic in the centre of Europe may be minimized by active dynamic planning in order to avoid flight path conflicts without having too great an impact on commercial aircraft operations.