As demands on airspace increase from commercial and government space activities, the existing Air Traffic Management (ATM) system will have to evolve into a Space and Traffic Management Systems (SATMS). The Flight Path Tool was developed to minimize the impact of space flight to aircraft operations while at the same time ensuring a level of safety acceptable to the public.

While destruct events are very rare, a dynamic understanding of the space and air traffic gives all users of the airspace considerably more flexibility in managing the needs of their respective airspace users.

AIR AND SPACE SAFETY

Air and space safety requirements are in the domain of three different agencies:

1) Civil and commercial aviation and commercial space operation safety are the responsibility of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA);

2) Non-military government space operations safety is the responsibility of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and

3) Military aviation and space operations safely is the providence of the Department of Defense (DoD), usually working through the Test and Launch Range Commander's Council (RCC).

All three organizations are striving to develop improved systems and processes for safety assessment with the goal of developing realistic safety criteria which meet the statutory and regulatory requirements for public protection while minimizing the impact on commercial, government, and military launch operations.


Although there is considerable cooperation between these three organizations on safety, there has been little coordination on real-time safety assurance during

operations. The FAA has followed a model involving the closing of affected airspace during critical operations. This model has been less than efficient for NASA and RCC who can find their launch window expired after they have resolved their launch problems.

This problem is expected to grow as NASA transitions from the Space Shuttle era to the new Crew Exploration Vehicle and international players iin Space exploration (such as China) increase both manned and unmanned presence in space. Commercial space interests following. Commercial space interests following Burt Rutan's Spaceship One and an increasingly sophisticated array of ballistic, suborbital, and orbital space systems in military applications will add to the problem.


A new paradigm is needed for integration of ATM with space traffic control in order to meet future requirements for both mission assurance and public safety. This paradigm is based on the use of improved situational awareness with advanced planning tools to allow the ATM system to respond dynamically to changes in a space traffic plan. It is anticipated that this paradigm and the associated tools will be integrated into next generation Space and Air Traffic Management Systems (SATMS).

THE FLIGHT PATH TOOL