Airline delays flights at the last minute due to SpaceX rocket debris

Australian airline Qantas has had to urgently delay several of its flights to South Africa after debris from Elon Musk's SpaceX rockets fell back to Earth.

This reports The Guardian.

«We have had to delay several flights between Johannesburg and Sydney in the last few weeks because of advice received from the US government about SpaceX rockets re-entering the atmosphere over a large area of ​​the southern Indian Ocean», — said Qantas spokesman Ben Holland.

The company tries to give advance notice of travel changes, but this time the airline had to delay flights just minutes before departure, Holland said.

Qantas receives alerts with geographic coordinates and re-entry times, but these can change suddenly and are difficult to predict.

«We are contacting SpaceX to see if they can clarify the zones and time windows for rocket re-entry to minimize future disruption to our passengers on the route», — added Holland.

According to The Guardian, SpaceX's activities are also affecting South African Airways flights.