Filing a NOTAM for a Rocket Launch

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Key

• MSL - Feet above Mean Sea Level
• AGL - Feet above Ground Level
• NM - Nautical Miles

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I welcome contributions to this collection of rocketry safety information. Contact me if you have any corrections, suggestions or contributions.

Your COA or waiver will contain specific instructions regarding notifications to your regional ARTCC and possibly other entities (like a military or local airport,) and the requirment to file a NOTAMNotice To Air Missions.  A NOTAM is a source of timely information regarding conditions or activities which may impact the flight plans of aircraft traveling through your area. This activity requires a phone call to Leidos Flight Service (LFS). Your COA will include instructions to contact Leidos, the contact number, a specific time frame for filing a NOTAM, and specific location and altitude information authorized by your waiver. To the best of my understanding this may only be done with a phone call, and the resulting NOTAM may be viewed online at FNS NOTAM Search.

I strongly encourage you to learn the ICAO International Telephony Alphabet. I learned it in the US Army, but I taught it through all of my years of IT and technical support. I insist that it is an essential communications tool and that it makes you sound like a professional. Learning the alphabet is useful in all aspects of communicating with the FAA, military flight operations, and in fact anyone you must communicate with on the phone or radio.

The NOTAM system software permits the agent to pull up a recent NOTAM and make a copy; editing in thew new times and dates. If you filed a NOTAM last month, the agent would appreciate that NOTAM ID so they can use it as a template for your new NOTAM. Usually they can only pull up NOTAMs that are from the past 30 days. If no recent NOTAM is available for reference you are going to tell the agent that this is for an UNMANNED ROCKET launch.

Here is sample NOTAM language from my experience.

!ALM 01/009 BWS AIRSPACE UNMANNED ROCKET 
WITHIN AN AREA DEFINED AS 1.0NM RADIUS OF 
BWS001006(4.6NM NNW ALM) SFC-17000FT YYMMDDHHMM-YYMMDDHHMM

!ALM is the declared airspace (in this case Alamogordo, NM, and 01/009 indicates the 9th NOTAM filed in ALM in January. The term UNMANNED ROCKET is the key identifier or subject of the NOTAM. In this example, BWS is the airspace designated for a nearby airport, and BWS001006 is a location coordinate as a radial from that airport. This helps a pilot plan a flight through the area with an understanding of your launch location with respect to a standard navigation point (that airport). That radial will be called out in your COA. WITHIN AN AREA DEFINED AS nnNM (Nautical Mile) RADIUS OF defines the area within which you are expected to land and recover your rockets. This is the area that flight traffic control will protect by directing traffic around your assigned cylinder of airspace.

The remaining information is the authorized altitude SFCSurface-17000FT, followed by the start and end times for the activity in ZULU Time, which is a Military term for Universal Time Coordinated or UTC, used primarily in aviation and at sea. This is also expressed in 24 hour time, so that e.g. 1:00 pm is 13:00.

Scripted Call Example

The following is a script for how you might address the agent who answers your call to file a NOTAM.