A Little Known Achievement of India’s Moon Mission

The world watched with bated breath on 23 August 2023 as India’s Chandrayaan-3 landed on the south pole of the moon, the first by any nation. The achievement also propelled India to the league of nations that have completed soft landings on the lunar surface. 

While many celebrated this historic achievement – and IATA too extends its congratulations to the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) - most people were not aware that this successful space mission had also achieved another milestone in how rocket launches can take place with minimal impact to civil aviation. 

“Rocket launches tend to be a chronic pain for the airline industry. Large swathes of airspace have to be declared as temporary danger zones and closed for long periods of time to cater for the rocket’s falling debris along the launch trajectory,” said Blair Cowles, IATA’s Regional Director for Operations, Safety and Security, Asia-Pacific. 

“As a result, airlines either plan a much longer flight path to avoid these temporary danger zones, or delay their departures. This has an operational impact on airlines as their passengers on the affected flights will be delayed and potentially miss their onward flight connections,” said Cowles.

In order to minimize the disruption to civil aviation, since 2018, IATA’s team in the Asia Pacific region raised these challenges and suggested a set of guidance material aimed at providing best practice guidance for ballistic launches and space re-entry, from planning to launch completion. 

The guidance material included:

• Choosing a launch window to avoid busy air traffic hours
• Selecting a launch trajectory that avoids busy air traffic zones
• Engaging in timely coordination with civil aviation stakeholders through providing advance notice of the launch window, definitive launch confirmation, lifting of the danger zones as soon as the launch is completed
• Providing alternative direct route segments in the airspace to avoid danger zones safely and efficiently
• Avoiding imposing undue additional buffers in terms of timings and airspace

This was institutionalized as State guidance material and planning checklist through the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) Asia Pacific Regional Office, and recommended to States when conducting rocket launches.

Following much engagement with the Indian authorities - the Ministry of Civil Aviation, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, and the Airports Authority of India – it is evident that the airspace Procedures for Ballistic Launch/Space Re-entry Management and Planning checklist were operationalized for the Chandrayaan-3 mission that took off from India’s main spaceport located in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on 14 July 2023. The disruption to civil aviation was kept to a minimum. The airspace was closed comparatively for a short duration – outside of the busy air traffic hours and congestion zones. It was well-coordinated with stakeholders from planning till the end of the launch. Several direct alternate route segments were offered and published in a timely manner.   

Chandrayaan-3 opened a new chapter in space history. It also marked an important milestone in the collaborative airspace management for rocket launches and airline operations. 

“With exponential growth in space launches forecast across Asia-Pacific, IATA urges States to develop fair and innovative ways for the safe and efficient coexistence of civil flights and space missions. One step to take is to adopt the checklist that has already been developed,” said Cowles.