The work of a team of Taiwanese scientists has shown the potentially fatal consequences of launching major rockets on the global positioning system (GPS). Since drones and self-driving cars rely on GPS, such failures can lead to accidents and disasters.
Image source: NASA
To assess the impact of rocket launches on the planet’s ionosphere and the operation of the GPS system, scientists took advantage a network of stations to monitor the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates. These stations have high-precision GPS receivers and are able to give the most accurate picture of what is happening with the global positioning network.
The Earth’s ionosphere extends from 48 to 965 km above sea level. This layer contains free electrons – this is the ionized region of the upper layers of the atmosphere. The passage of a rocket through this area affects the local density and distribution of electrons and, indirectly, the delays of GPS signals, since GPS satellites are much higher – at an altitude of 20,200 km – and their signals travel through the disturbed ionosphere to the Earth’s surface.
As shown by measurements from ground-based sensors, the launch of the Artemis II mission rocket three times caused large-scale disturbances in the Earth’s ionosphere. The first occurred immediately at launch on April 1, 2026 and was accompanied by the propagation of acoustic and gravitational waves. The second was recorded after the upper stage engines were turned on to increase the orbital apogee, approximately 1 hour 48 minutes after launch. The third episode occurred after the acceleration maneuver was performed on the flight path to the Moon, approximately 25 hours after launch. The last two events were accompanied by particularly pronounced changes in the electron density in the ionosphere.
The largest disturbance was associated with the second episode – it spread to about 50 degrees of longitude over North America, that is, about 5000 km. According to the researchers, the impact is created not only by the mechanical passage of the rocket through the atmosphere: the combustion products of rocket fuel, entering the ionized environment, cause chemical reactions that lead to a decrease in the concentration of free electrons. An additional role is played by shock waves propagating from the rocket. It is noteworthy that subsequent engine activations, despite significantly lower thrust compared to the SLS launch boosters, caused stronger disturbances in the ionosphere. This indicates the importance of altitude and conditions for maneuvers using engines.
As a result, changes in electron concentration affect the propagation speed of GPS radio signals. According to the authors of the work, such disturbances can lead to errors in determining coordinates of several meters, which is potentially significant for unmanned vehicles and drones. At the same time, the authors do not cite cases of consequences of failures during the historical launch of a crewed rocket and subsequent maneuvers in Earth orbit. If there were such cases, then history is silent about them.
The disturbance to GPS signals caused by the SLS rocket was ten times greater than anything observed during testing of the Starship spacecraft. It is clear that future lunar and Martian missions will also greatly impact the global positioning system, which will only expand and improve accuracy. Far-reaching conclusions should be drawn from this and measures taken before anything fatal happens. If nothing is done, then accidents associated with such GPS errors are only a matter of time.
If you notice an error, select it with the mouse and press CTRL+ENTER.
