The explosion of Elon Musk’s Starship rocket causes diversions on air routes

This 2024, Space X will increase from 33 launches in 2021, to 134. The growth in operations reflects the explosion of the commercial space market. Musk’s company chose the southern Indian Ocean as the re-entry area for its rockets precisely because of its relative “solitude.” Unfortunately, the air routes that connect South Australia with South Africa pass right through it. Although there are not many flights compared to the Atlantic or Pacific routes, it is estimated that there are between 20 and 25 weekly connections between both countries, with the possibility of even more during peak periods. However, more than 15,000 people travel from one city to another every week, and it would take just one accident to cause a massacre.

SpaceX also cannot be asked to change its strategy, because dumping space junk on the ground is an unavoidable aspect of its operations. In fact, the figures give an idea of ​​the magnitude of the phenomenon: each Falcon 9 leaves in orbit a 3.5-ton upper stage that sooner or later has to re-enter the atmosphere. Not everything burns during the fall, in 2015 a piece measuring 10 by 4 meters was found on the British coast of the Scilly Islands. Even other fragments were discovered 3 years ago in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia.

The situation is so serious that SpaceX has had to set up a specific phone line for those who find pieces of their rockets. “If you think you have identified space debris, please do not touch it,” warns the company, while asking for exact information about the ulocation. The nonprofit Aerospace Corporation estimates that between 200 and 400 pieces of space debris large enough to be tracked fall to Earth each year. There are also those who study them and even believe that the problem will be much greater; Such is the case of the preventive company Privateer, co-founded by Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs’ partner in the birth of Apple, and two other investors, who claim that today we have 27,000 objects in space, and the majority are inactive satellites.