NATCA Bookshelf

National Office Update: Dec. 30 - Feb. 3

A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association

Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/1217493

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Commercial Space Integration Team (CSIT) - The Commercial Space Integration Team meets every month, although the January CSIT meeting, scheduled for Jan. 28, was cancelled. The CSIT is a director-level group tasked with defining and coordinating policy, regulation, procedures, and strategic planning pertaining to the integration of space operations in the NAS, and NATCA is a chartered core member of this team. It was announced at a different meeting that ATO Deputy COO gave direction to form a new "Commercial Space Leadership Team" comprised of Vice Presidents and Deputy VPs. NATCA's role in this team is yet to be determined, however it is my expectation that since this new team will be led by my Agency counterpart in AJR that I will be collaboratively involved. These issues are ongoing. Dynamic Launch Windows/Time Based Launch Procedures (DLRW/TBLP) - MITRE has been tasked with engaging launch and reentry stakeholders in a series of telcons regarding their internal launch processes and procedures in an effort to ascertain common practices which may lead to more efficient "dynamic" use of launch window times and activation/release of associated airspace. This month telcons were conducted with SpaceX, United Launch Alliance, Rocket Lab, Sierra Nevada, and the 30th & 45th Space Wings. These meetings are ongoing. 50114 ALTRV Course - In October 2019, the ATCSCC decided to redesign the FAA's 50114 ALTRV course, which is primarily designed for Command Center personnel, TMCs/STMCs, and CARF specialists. In addition to revising the course, a third day of instruction was added to the class dedicated solely to space launch and reentry operations. NATCA was not initially involved in this course redesign, however we did become involved and participated in reviewing the existing material and creating the new material for the space portion. The "operational tryout" of this course was conducted from Jan. 28-30 at the ATCSCC, and a First Course Conduct is scheduled for Feb. 25-28. NATCA has identified and selected the SMEs who will participate. QP Draw - The QP Draw (also called PVD Draw) is a proposed function in ERAM stemming from a 2015 Seattle Center AIMS ticket associated with depicting firefighting TFR's. This functionality would allow for controllers to use the ERAM draw feature on a closed position and/or AT workstation and then force the drawing to the display of the appropriate sectors. For space launch and reentry operations, this feature would significantly reduce controller distraction and workload at the sector level on launch days. Currently all launch/reentry hazard areas are manually put into ERAM from a live radar position, requiring the CPC to enter as many as 16 sets of latitude/longitude coordinates to depict the corners of the areas and then draw lines to connect the points of the boxes. I briefed the En Route Automation Workgroup (ERAW) in November and the National User Team (NUT) in December. The ERAW/NUT is working with Leidos to get a cost estimate. Best case scenario is that this functionality could be packaged for an ERAM release in October 2021, assuming a funding source is identified. DATACOMM Ray Berndt (ZJX) is the Article 114 Rep for DataComm.

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