Principles for the Development of a Future Operational Concept for the Higher Airspace

An increasing number of technologies and concepts are being developed for the operation of aircraft and spacecraft in the so-called Higher Airspace. A multitude of different vehicle classes pose individual requirements for the management of this volume of airspace and the transition through the existing controlled airspace below as well as re-entries from orbit. The results of an evaluation of existing literature, presentations and preliminary work on this subject is presented here, identifying transferable elements and key principles for the traffic management in the Higher Airspace

NAS Integration: CST and Air Traffic Insertion The Way Ahead

Differences in handling aircraft vs. spacecraft in ATM Challenges for CST ATM & STM Integration CST Integration in Airspace ERAU and DLR Collaboration EUROCONTROL - Network Manager DLR Remote Tower solutions for Spaceports ATM Integration of Space Vehicles in Europe / Germany SESAR Requirements & SWIM Spacecraft Flight Planning and Executio

Supporting the safety and efficiency of airspace transition for launch and re-entry operations in Europe

Due to increased demand and developing business opportunities, new potential spaceports on the European continent are being discussed and developed. It will be essential in the future to ensure a balance between the commercial interests of civil aviation and those of commercial space flight. With the establishment of a Launch Coordination Center (LCC), the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is working on the development of a service with which missions can be supported and monitored in real time from launch to handover to space traffic management (or vice versa for re-entry and landing). The LCC will support traffic integration as early as the planning phase and allow minimization of impact on air traffic while considering mission requirements. In doing so, efficient procedures for scheduling launch and re-entry activities will be provided. For post-mission analysis, mission parameters will be processed and evaluated in relation to the impact on the air traffic system

Manned and Unmanned Space Vehicles: Air Traffic Insertion & SESAR Requirements

Space Traffic Management, SESA

Validation Chain for ATM Concepts

Validation Chain for ATM Concepts on the example of large scale Airport projects. Examples of FP4-FP6 and SESAR are pointing out the necessary loop from Fast Time Simulations (FTS) over Real Time Simulations (RTS) as preparation for on site trials (OST). This presentation also focuses on the difference between verification and validation following the European Operational Concept Validation Methodology (E-OCVM)

Unterstützung der Sicherheit und Effizienz bei der Luftraumintegration von Raketenstart- und Wiedereintrittsoperationen in Europa

Vor dem Hintergrund zunehmender Raumfahrtaktivitäten und der Kommerzialisierung der Raumfahrt werden in Europa aktuell verschiedene Ideen zu potentiellen Spaceports diskutiert und entwickelt. In diesem Zusam menhang wird es künftig notwendig sein, eine Balance zwischen den kommerziellen Interessen der zivilen Luftfahrt und der Raumfahrt zu finden. Aus diesem Grund entwickelt das Deutsche Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR) zurzeit ein sogenanntes Launch-Coordination-Center (LCC) zur Missionsunterstützung und -überwachung. Das LCC wird verschiedene Services für die Planung, Durchführung und Nachbereitung von Starts sowie Wiedereintritten und Landungen von Raumfahrzeugen anbieten. Dabei liegt der Fokus auf der Reduktion des Einflusses von Raumfahrzeugoperationen auf den Luftverkehr im europäischen Luftraum

Mechanisms supporting improved multi-stakeholder coordination of launch and re-entry traffic integration

In the context of the growing commercial space sector, future launch range facilities are facing changing conceptual and operational constraints. Thus, in order to be able to carry out a high frequency of launches and re-entries in the future more finely tuned processes will be needed to coordinate with all the stakeholders involved in and affected by space operations. Therefore, the German Aerospace Center (DLR) is developing a Launch Coordination Center (LCC) to provide services for efficient integration of launch and re-entry operations into the air traffic system for spaceports of all kinds. In addition, an interface to maritime authorities is also considered. The LCC will support traffic integration as early as the planning phase and allow minimization of impact on air traffic while considering mission requirements. In doing so, efficient procedures for scheduling launch and re-entry activities and multi-stakeholder coordination will be provided. Coordination and data exchange will also be supported by automated functions during execution to increase stakeholder situational awareness and ensure safe and efficient operations. At the same time, the spacecraft trajectory and the surrounding air and maritime traffic are monitored. In addition, functions are provided for postprocessing to analyze planned and actual data from the previous phases

Manned and Unmanned Space Vehicles: Air Traffic Insertion & SESAR Requirements

Space Traffic Management, SESA

Impact of Higher Airspace Operations on Air Traffic in Europe

Historically, higher airspace has been used for military exercises and as transit for space vehicles. Riding on commercial space operations' coattails, more and more vehicles are under development that will make use of higher airspace resources. This will lead to increasing interactions with conventional air traffic since these new vehicles will have to transit through lower airspaces. The management of these operations is necessary to ensure the safe and practicable shared usage of these airspaces. This paper outlines an assessment of the impact of higher airspace operations on conventional air traffic in Europe. Initially, a synthesis of possible use cases was performed, and demand scenarios were developed that served as input to a fast-time simulation. The impact on air traffic was measured by means of flight efficiency parameters. The simulation results showed that the impact is dependent on the type of operation. High-altitude platform system flights and orbital launches cause the largest deviations in flight distance, flight duration and fuel consumption. Higher airspace operation parameters, including location, time, and duration, strongly affect the impact on the conventional air traffic

Interoperable data exchange for safe and efficient launch and re-entry operations in an international environment

The frequency of commercial space launch and re-entry operations is increasing worldwide. Current regulations and procedures ensure safe operations by temporarily closing large volumes of airspace where risks to aircraft would exist in case of non-nominal events during launch or re-entry operations. To maintain the safety of air traffic as the number of space operations rises, effectively providing the right information to the right stakeholders at the right time is key. Through a cooperative agreement, the FAA and DLR are sharing their unique capabilities using the Commercial Space Integration Lab and Air Traffic Validation Center, located in the USA and Germany respectively, to improve situational awareness through real-time data exchange. The project seeks to answer whether U.S. and European ANSPs can respond adequately to a non-nominal event during a launch or re-entry operation that presents a hazard to the airspace system. It leverages existing international data standards and infrastructures by using a data exchange approach based on System Wide Information Management (SWIM). Within the project an initial assessment of the processes, roles and responsibilities for implementing launch and re-entry events in the air traffic systems on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as the requirements for basic functions and performance parameters of a SWIM-based integration, have been completed. The project developed a demonstration model across all system levels as far down as to the ANSPs, namely to the air traffic controllers. Through a series of demonstrations, covering launch scenarios from the U.S. with possible effects on European airspace and vice versa, the project evaluated the technical and operational feasibility of the concept. The key data parameters identified during the analyses shall enable information sharing among various users within the U.S. and European global airspace system. It has been shown, that the systems on both sides of the Atlantic could be connected via standardized protocols und used successfully for exercises in different scenarios. Further research on the best integration of the processes in international ATM networks and Domains will follow