The FAA has warned pilots to be prepared to “exercise extreme caution” when flying below the trajectory of commercial spacecraft—some of which have the potential for “catastrophic failures resulting in debris fields.”
That is the language used in a recent Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO), dated January 8, that is intended to provide guidance to air carriers, general aviation operators, and other airspace users. The SAFO follows a record fiscal year for commercial spaceflight that saw the FAA license more than 200 launches and reentries, shattering its record of 146 licensed operations in fiscal year 2024.
Among those 2025 space activities were three launches of SpaceX’s massive Starship rocket and Super Heavy booster that resulted in mishaps, two of them causing major disruptions to air traffic. The incidents have prompted some aviation stakeholders to question which part of the FAA’s mission is being prioritized—regulating the safety of commercial space activities or promoting the companies that operate them, as it is directed to do under federal law.
“Ensuring a safe [National Airspace System (NAS)] while promoting commercial space operations by the private sector is a direct conflict of interest with the FAA’s delegated responsibilities to ensure a safe and efficient NAS,” wrote Steve Jangelis, aviation safety chair for the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA), in an October letter to the FAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation.
Now, the aviation regulator is telling pilots to use “additional situational awareness” when contending with flights into aircraft hazard areas (AHAs), which “segregate” air traffic from space activity, and debris response areas (DRAs)—zones that are predetermined to fall under the trajectory of a spacecraft and can be swiftly cleared of aircraft if debris is reported.
But ALPA contends that these mechanisms are ineffective. Per Jangelis, out of four Starship test flights that required DRAs, the FAA activated only one within a required 6-minute, 30-second time frame, in part because SpaceX was slow to respond.
The Wall Street Journal in December reported that it took the company 15 minutes to report Starship’s explosion during Flight 7 in January 2025. Some air traffic controllers (ATCs) learned about the incident from pilots who witnessed it firsthand.
“The only information I got is that the rocket exploded so we need to protect the airspace” one ATC told a pilot following the mishap, per an investigation by ProPublica.
The investigation found that the Flight 7 DRA was active for close to 90 minutes, and several aircraft ran low on fuel while in holding patterns. An Iberian Airlines plane carrying 283 people declared a fuel emergency in order to travel through the no-fly zone and land safely in Puerto Rico. ProPublica found that ATCs helped at least 20 other pilots adjust course.
“While the FAA’s recently released SAFO addresses many of ALPA’s concerns…most of their recommended preventative measures, like reviewing active NOTAMS and identifying alternative routes, are already standard for our rigorously trained pilots,” Jason Ambrosi, president of ALPA, told FLYING.
Spaceflight on the Rise
Per ProPublica’s analysis of about 250 SAFOs the FAA has issued over the past two decades, January’s is the first to highlight the threat of space debris from commercial launch or reentry operations.
As Ambrosi alluded, the SAFO tells pilots to review preflight NOTAMs, check for real-time Operational Information System (OIS) updates, and identify alternate landing sites in the case of a diversion. It also suggests that operators bake in potential space-related delays during preflight planning, warning that aircraft should have enough holding fuel to get them through a prolonged DRA.
“As commercial and government space launch activities increase, it is imperative that airspace users account for potential disruptions due to launch operations,” the SAFO reads.
The alert notes that temporary flight restrictions (TFRs), AHAs, and DRAs are often issued via Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) and can also be found within Airspace Management Plans. But it adds that DRAs are not issued in oceanic airspace or areas without radar coverage, requiring “additional situational awareness” by pilots.
During past mishaps, debris has fallen within or “near” the DRA, the FAA said. But neither the agency nor SpaceX have publicly shared where debris fell during Starship’s mishaps on Flight 7 in January and Flight 8 in March, which similarly ended in an explosion.
Starship’s 2025 test flights—five in total—represented some of the most eye-catching commercial space activity. Other operators are flying more, too. Per FAA commercial space data, Rocket Lab, Blue Origin, and other launch providers increased their cadence last year.
Already, the agency in fiscal year 2026 has licensed 68 operations. The vast majority of these involve mature or flight-proven spacecraft like SpaceX’s Falcon 9. Others, like Starship, are more experimental.
The cadence of commercial space operations could continue to rise should regulators carry out President Donald Trump’s August executive order, which directs them to eliminate environmental reviews and other red tape around launch and reentry licensing. Per the FAA’s most recent 10-year forecast, the agency expects to authorize anywhere from 2,000 to 4,000 launches over the next decade.
Starship Handling Sparks Concern
Some airspace users, including those represented by ALPA, have raised concerns about the FAA’s handling of Starship, which at launch generates close to 17 million pounds of thrust—almost double that of NASA’s Space Launch System or Apollo-era Saturn V rockets. The rocket stands about 400 feet tall when stacked on its Super Heavy booster.
Starship’s first six test flights across 2023 and 2024 were a mixed bag. Some made it all the way to splashdown, while others broke apart in suborbit. None caused major disruptions to air travel. But things changed with the introduction of a more powerful Starship, Version 2 (V2), on Flight 7.
“No aircraft have been put at risk and any events that generated vehicle debris were contained within pre-coordinated response areas,” SpaceX wrote on X in December, responding to the Journal’s coverage. “Any aircraft were appropriately routed in real-time around where debris was contained within the larger pre-coordinated hazard area.”
But neither SpaceX nor the FAA has publicly shared where the debris fell. Per the SAFO, it has been reported within or “near” the DRA during previous mishaps.
Following Flight 7, the FAA made the unusual move of greenlighting a subsequent mission before SpaceX completed a required investigation. Such a “return to flight” determination can only be made if a mishap is deemed not to jeopardize public safety.
Flight 8 launched on a similar trajectory—and similarly exploded over the Caribbean. The FAA told FLYING it diverted 18 aircraft, placed another 40 in holding patterns, and delayed 171 departures by an average of 28 minutes while the Flight 8 DRA was active.
Following those two mishaps, the FAA nearly doubled the AHA for Flight 9 from about 885 nm to 1,600 nm, extending it over the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos. It also required the launch to occur outside “peak transit periods.” The agency estimated that the expanded precautions could delay more than 175 flights by an average of 40 minutes.
Though Starship suffered another anomaly on Flight 9, it surpassed the previous two flights. Subsequent tests in August and October made it to splashdown, giving SpaceX critical data on the vehicle’s heat shield. And there is more in store for 2026.
The FAA last year allowed SpaceX to launch Starship 25 times annually from its Starbase launch pad in Texas. The company was previously limited to five launches per year. An April 2025 tiered environmental assessment of the increased cadence notes that SpaceX anticipates “breakup during reentry resulting in debris falling into the ocean (up to 25 times per year for each vehicle stage).”
At the same time, SpaceX is seeking approval for new Starship trajectories out of Starbase that would travel through airspace over Florida, Mexico, Cuba, and Jamaica. Jangelis said the FAA’s analysis of those impacts so far is “extremely vague” and “continues to ignore fundamental airspace safety and operational issues.” He estimated that a proposed AHA over Florida could impact as many as 200 commercial aircraft per hour.
After a two-year wait, the FAA last week also issued a final environmental impact statement permitting up to 44 annual Starship launches from Launch Complex 39-A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, where SpaceX is already constructing a $1.8 billion manufacturing hub. One commenter said that level of activity “would result in substantial delays—ranging between 40 and 120 minutes to between 12,000 and 23,000 commercial aircraft operations per year.”
SpaceX will still need to obtain a license to launch Starship from Florida. It is also eyeing operations out of Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 37. The U.S. Air Force recently approved the construction of two Starship launch pads that could accommodate up to 76 launches annually.
Many of those operations could be conducted using Starship Version 3, which unlike its predecessors will be capable of orbital flight and commercial missions, such as deploying batches of Starlink satellites. ALPA urged the FAA to better communicate potential risks to pilots ahead of the larger, more powerful rocket’s anticipated debut in 2026.
“By prioritizing increases in communication between airline pilots, airlines, and space communities, we could better understand each other’s operations and constraints, allowing for a more efficient, and most importantly safer airspace,” Ambrosi said. “With the frequency of space launches only growing, now is the time to bring airspace users together to create standards and systems to avoid safety risks and disruptions caused by spaceflight.”