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Qantas was forced to suspend flights between Australia and South Africa after the US government warned the airline about the risk of parts of a SpaceX rocket re-entering the atmosphere in the southern Indian Ocean.
Australia’s national carrier said on Tuesday it had delayed several flights between Sydney and Johannesburg over the past few weeks, with delays lasting between one and six hours.
Ben Holland, head of Qantas’ operations center, said the timing of recent re-entry of parts of rockets owned by Elon Musk SpaceX was “moved at late notice,” forcing the airline to delay some flights shortly before scheduled departure.
He added: “We are in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the areas and timeframes for rocket re-entry to minimize future disruption to our passengers en route.”
Few airlines fly over the remote southern Indian Ocean, but Qantas has operated the South Africa-Australia route — known as the Wallaby route — since the early 1950s.
It is a route regularly used by tourists, South Africans living in Australia and mining executives.
The Federal Aviation Administration, the US regulator, issues licenses for all commercial launches and re-entry of space rockets within the US, as well as those carried out by US companies abroad.
Rocket launches are usually carefully calibrated to ensure that parts that cannot be reused fall into remote areas of the ocean. The exact location will depend on the flight, and planes and ships have been told to avoid the re-entry zone.
Qantas’ warning comes as the launch rate is expected to increase significantly with several new rockets coming to market.
Last year there were a record 259 rocket launch attempts globally, of which 256 proved successful.
SpaceX is responsible for more than half of that number and is expected to increase the pace of launches this year when it brings its massive Starship rocket into service. It is expected to make its seventh test flight this week, although the date had previously been pushed back.
Rival rocket company Blue Origin, backed by billionaire Jeff Bezos, is also scheduled to fly its New Glenn rocket in the coming days after canceling its maiden flight on Monday due to icing problems.
There have been cases of parts falling back to earth outside of the controlled zones. Last year, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 was grounded after three incidents involving parts that re-entered outside the controlled re-entry zone.
Qantas shares fell 2 percent in Australia after the flight delays were revealed.
SpaceX has been contacted for comment.
