Its new missile-defence scheme, when deployed, should be bigger and better than the now-cancelled programme of ground-based interceptors in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic.

But delays and inefficiencies in air travel are due in large part to an outdated traffic-control system that still relies on slow, ground-based radar stations and repetitive voice communication.

Radar tracking of the shuttle, like the final accurate ground-based navigation, had not yet begun.