Qantas says several flight delays over recent weeks were due to last-minute notifications from Elon Musk’s SpaceX about potential rocket debris.

SpaceX has selected the southern Indian Ocean as a re-entry zone for its rockets due to its remoteness, but it is in the vicinity of a flightpath between Sydney and Johannesburg, Qantas’ operations centre head Ben Holland said.

The Australian airline had been forced to delay several flights to South Africa in the last two weeks after receiving last-minute notification that some SpaceX debris may be falling in the area, he added.

“While we try to make any changes to our schedule in advance, the timing of recent launches have moved around at late notice which has meant we’ve had to delay some flights just prior to departure,” Holland said in a statement to local media.

“Our teams notify customers of changes to their flights as soon as we know it will be impacted.”

Qantas said it did receive notifications of specific geographic coordinates and timing of rocket re-entries, but this sometimes occurred just minutes before the departure of a flight.

“Customers generally understand this is outside of airlines’ control and that we can’t fly in the area when the rocket re-entry is taking place,” Holland said.

“We’re in contact with SpaceX to see if they can refine the areas and time windows for the rocket re-entries to minimise future disruptions to our passengers on the route.”

Flights delayed up to six hours

Qantas’ Sydney to Johannesburg flight is typically scheduled to depart at 9:30am local time. This week, the flight departed about an hour late on average, and on one occasion was nearly two hours late, according to Flightradar 24.

The return flight from Johannesburg is scheduled to depart at 5:15pm local time, and in recent days has been delayed for as long as six hours.

Professor Ron Bartsch, an aviation law and safety expert and chair of Avlaw Aviation Consulting, said risks from falling debris were “extremely remote” and Qantas could have rerouted the flights around the area to avoid potential delays.

“To me the comments by Qantas regarding the reason for flight delays is along the lines of ‘my dog ate my homework’ excuse,” he told Information Age.


SpaceX uses the southern Indian Ocean as a re-entry zone for its rockets, due to its remoteness. Photo: SpaceX / X

Bartsch pointed to a SpaceX launch earlier this week from California.

“The SpaceX vehicle dropped its payloads over the southern Indian Ocean,” he said.

“They were all small satellites, known as ‘cubesats’ or ‘microsats’, which will stay up there for decades.

“The risk of these interfering with aviation immediately after launch would be quite remote.

“The greater problem is the proliferation of space debris, causing hazards to any operations in space and restricting the access to space for future operations.”

Australia’s importance to SpaceX

Last year it was reported that SpaceX was in discussions with Australian and US officials to test-land and recover Starship rockets off the coast after Australia, following launches from the US state of Texas.

This would see rockets landing in the ocean or on a barge off Australia’s western or northern coast.

Later in 2024, debris from a SpaceX rocket was found off Western Australia’s Ningaloo coast.

The company is planning an orbital test flight of its Starship rocket on Thursday US time, which will be the seventh test flight of the rocket it hopes will eventually be used to assist with the colonisation of Mars.

NASA reportedly dispatched an aircraft to Australia to monitor the mission, according to Space Connect.

SpaceX achieved a significant milestone in October when a returning booster was caught mid-air by a launch tower with mechanical arms.