A publication of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association
Issue link: http://natca.uberflip.com/i/868391
with Mark Prestrude, and the Joint Space Operations Group (JSpOG). Historically, the U . S . space program has its roots in the activi ties of the military and NASA. In 1984, the Commercial Space Launch Act was passed creating an entirely new sector of the spa ce industry complex overnight. Regulatory oversight for commercial space was assigned to the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST), which was originally an entity in the DOT and is now a separate li ne of business within the FAA. The missi on of AST is to encourage, facilitate, and promote U.S. commercial space transportation while protecting public property, and the national security and foreign policy i nterests of the United States. Commercial space launch and reentry operations are increa sing in frequency and additional launch site s have continued to be added. This has required AST to re - examine the manner in which increasing operations can be safely and efficiently conducted without overly impacting the NAS. Air traffic has traditionally operated on a first - come , first - served principle of service, while operations that required segregation from the other NAS activities were eval uated on a case - by - case basis. The FAA has publicly stated the following as its v ision for integration: "Uphol d the required level of public safety and minimize the effect of space operations on the overall efficiency and capacity of the NAS without jeopardizing the space vehicle operator's opp ortunity for mission success." The Agency has deployed multiple strate gies for achieving this objective including: minimizing the activity time window, restricting activity windows to non - peak times, design of Defined Aircraft Hazard Areas (AHA), obtaining adjacent SUA airspace for ATO use, the use of historical traffic dat a to assess launch impact, and implementing real - time coo rdination and launch modeling. As these enabling technologies are further evolved, additional tactical options will become more broadly available and additional decision support tools must be made av ailable to ATC for disp lay on the controller's glass. Much of the existing work is currently accomplished manually, borrowing on existing tools not designed for this purpose. However, the FAA has been prototyping technologies such as the Space Data Integr ator (SDI) that was field - tested this year at Miami Cent er for space vehicle tracking. Once incorporated into ERAM and deployed around 2020, SDI will permit controllers to see space vehicle trajectory depicted on their display. These types of technologies combined with increased vendor vehicle reliability will permit the transition from space vehicle segregation to operational integration. OSHA Mike Odryna (ZBW) is the Chairman of NATCA's OSHA Committee. He has provided an update for the membership. 3900. 19C Following the INI briefing help in May on the new Dr aft revision to Order 3900.19. NATCA is coordinating with the Agency to develop collaborative groups to develop OSH Programs for all LOBs and Staff Offices. POC: Dominic Petrelli, Mike Odryna, Ryan Sm ith, Dean Iacopelli , Phil Barbarello, Grant Mulkey