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Abstract

Currently, during a commercial space launch, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibits air traffic within a large column of airspace around the launch trajectory. The prohibited airspace is often active for hours at a time, resulting in hundreds of rerouted flights. Recent research has focused on making the prohibited airspace dynamic throughout the commercial space launch and limiting the geographical extent. This article uses a Markov decision process to model the problem and dynamic programming to solve for an optimal rerouting policy. The resultant policy produces smaller prohibited regions and could provide real-time reroutes for air traffic controllers to relay to pilots during a commercial space launch. This article presents example policies that more efficiently reroute aircraft during commercial space launches without compromising safety.

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Efficient Aircraft Rerouting During Commercial Space Launches

Abstract

Abstract

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