NASA Advances High-Altitude Traffic Management

Agency develops air traffic system for flights at 50,000 feet and above

Published on Feb. 18, 2026

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NASA is developing an air traffic management system to enable safe and efficient operations in high-altitude airspace, which is seeing increasing interest from sectors like telecommunications and emergency response. The system provides shared awareness of the airspace, identifies potential conflicts, and allows operators to coordinate flight plans in real-time. NASA is collaborating with industry partners Aerostar and Sceye to test the system, which leverages decades of the agency's air traffic management expertise.

Why it matters

High-altitude flight offers new possibilities for delivering internet connectivity and providing early warnings for disasters, but requires a different air traffic management system than the one used for most commercial flights. NASA's work aims to create a framework that opens the door to new commercial, scientific, and humanitarian missions in the higher airspace.

The details

NASA's high-altitude air traffic management system enables operators to share live flight data, information about their flight plans, and potential conflict alerts. During a 2025 simulation, NASA, Aerostar, and Sceye acted as operators of high-altitude vehicles, sharing information from facilities in California, South Dakota, and New Mexico, and incorporating live telemetry data from an Aerostar stratospheric balloon. The simulation tested how efficiently data sharing would work among operators and how they make decisions when planned aircraft trajectories overlap.

  • The simulation was conducted at NASA's Airspace Operations Laboratory at Ames Research Center in California on July 29, 2025.
  • The Aerostar stratospheric balloon was floating at an altitude of 66,500 feet above Sioux Falls, South Dakota during the testing.

The players

NASA

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which is developing the high-altitude air traffic management system and collaborating with industry partners.

Aerostar

A developer and operator of high-altitude aircraft, which participated in the simulation and provided live telemetry data from a stratospheric balloon.

Sceye

A developer and operator of high-altitude aircraft, which participated in the simulation alongside NASA and Aerostar.

Jeff Homola

A researcher at NASA's Ames Research Center who says the current high-altitude air traffic management is manual and piecemeal, and that NASA's system provides a scalable solution for multiple operators in a shared airspace.

Kevin-Christian Garzon Galindo

A San Jose State University researcher at NASA Ames who monitored airspace data during the higher airspace air traffic simulation.

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What they’re saying

“Current high-altitude air traffic management is manual and piecemeal. We saw the need for a scalable solution – something multiple operators in a shared airspace can safely rely on. Our system provides shared awareness of the airspace, identifies potential conflicts, enables cooperative conflict resolution, and allows operators to complete missions safely.”

— Jeff Homola, Researcher, NASA's Ames Research Center

“We're leveraging decades of NASA's air traffic management expertise to make this possible.”

— Jeff Homola, Researcher, NASA's Ames Research Center

What’s next

NASA will share results and lessons learned from the simulation with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to inform its approach to ensuring that higher airspace operations are accessible, safe, and scalable. The agency will continue advancing the high-altitude traffic management system through continued collaboration with industry partners and the FAA.

The takeaway

NASA's work on high-altitude air traffic management aims to create a framework that opens the door to new commercial, scientific, and humanitarian missions in the higher airspace, leveraging the agency's decades of expertise in air traffic management to enable safe and efficient operations at altitudes above 50,000 feet.