The stratosphere is no longer empty. High-altitude platform and suborbital spaceplane operations are booming, yet our management of “near-space” remains stuck in the last century. We cannot afford to postpone solutions until after a catastrophe. Instead, we must embed new approaches now!

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Mathew Lewallen is an air traffic control specialist and aviation expert with over 11 years of experience in the U.S. Air Force. He currently serves as an international airspace manager (European Central Altitude Reservation Facility-EUCARF) at Ramstein...