Blue Origin explosion at 45,000 ft

[zaitcev]

Jeff Besos published a letter today, which mentioned that during the crash last week, control was lost and the flight terminated at 45,000 ft. The NOTAM, however, ended at the boundary of Class A, 18,000 ft. It's sort of obvious in retrospect, but I did not know it would be ok for a rocket to exit NOTAMed area from the top. You IFR guys better stick to your clearances, least flaming hulk of a spaceship falls on you.

URL:
http://www.blueorigin.com/letter.htm

 

[denverpilot]

We're discussing similar in my weird NOTAM thread above the Piñon MOA.

The NOTAM always stops at FL180 but the airspace is blocked above.

Same holds true for high-altitude balloon flights, etc. The folks at www.eoss.org do this regularly, for example.

They notify the controlling agency at launch, and once they've exited the airspace. They also usually provide locations and altitudes to them if they have them via telephone at regular intervals.

 

[Henning]

Probably because a NOTAM is to "Air Men", and AirMen are not responsible for airspace in Positive Control Airspace. FL 180 and above information should be in whatever the controller version of a NOTAM is....