The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has lifted temporary restrictions that had limited commercial rocket launches to nighttime hours, easing constraints on companies such as SpaceX following the end of the federal government shutdown.
The order, issued on Nov. 10, was designed to reduce workload for air traffic controllers during the shutdown by avoiding daytime airspace closures over major spaceports in Florida, California and the Delmarva Peninsula. The FAA said the restrictions formally ended at 6 a.m. EST (1100 GMT) on Nov. 17, allowing the National Airspace System to resume normal operations.
“Today’s decision to rescind the order reflects the steady decline in staffing concerns across the NAS and allows us to return to normal operations,” FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said in a statement.
The limitations primarily affected SpaceX, the most active U.S. launch provider. The company has been conducting Starlink missions at a pace of several launches per week and has surpassed 100 Starlink flights so far this year.
The order did not halt SpaceX entirely; the company launched four after-hours missions during the week-long restriction window, including three Starlink flights and the Sentinel-6B Earth-observation satellite.
Other missions faced minimal impact. NASA’s ESCAPADE Mars mission, launched on Nov. 13 aboard the second flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket, received a daytime exemption from the FAA.
In a post on X, Transportation Secretary and Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said, “The FAA has determined that normal flight operations can resume after multiple days of positive staffing with air traffic controllers in our towers. Now we can refocus our efforts on hiring and building the state-of-the-art air traffic control system the American people deserve.”
