Australian Airline, Qantas has been forced to delay several flights from Sydney to Johannesburg over that few weeks due to SpaceX rockets re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The airline noted that they were warned by the US government that they should delay flights on their Sydney-Johannesburg route as these rockets or satellites would become a problem as they re-entered some parts of the southern Indian Ocean.

These delays have lasted more than six hours at a time and were caused due to last-minute coordinate changes as the rockets tried to re-enter the atmosphere.

"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," Ben Holland, the head of Qantas's operations centre explained.

"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 disruption," he added.

SpaceX to launch fake satellites

It seems that SpaceX is unperturbed by the issues impacting Qantas and its passengers as the company has yet to make a statement on the issue and noted that it has plans to launch 10 fake satellites in 2025.

The company said that it will deploy 10 fake Starlink satellites and these rockets will be used to simulate satellites.

The objects, comparable in size and weight to the company's forthcoming third-generation internet satellite hardware, will serve as test payloads for Starship's orbital deployment capabilities.

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Qantas delays flights to Joburg due to SpaceX rockets