The move comes as a blow to the private space company.
Washington:
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said Thursday it was halting space flights by Virgin Galactic while it investigates why the company’s July 11 trip carrying Richard Branson deviated from its planned trajectory.
The move represents a setback for the private space company as it prepares to take on paying customers after its first fully crewed test flight.
It is now unclear whether Virgin’s next test flight, which includes members of the Italian Air Force, will take place in late September or early October as scheduled.
“The FAA is overseeing the Virgin Galactic investigation of its July 11 SpaceShipTwo accident, which occurred at Spaceport America, New Mexico,” the agency said in a brief statement.
“Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo may not return the vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final accident investigation report or issues related to the accident affecting public safety.”
The news comes after a New Yorker report said the flight experienced cockpit warnings about rocket-propelled climbs that could have jeopardized the mission.
The article by investigative journalist Nicholas Schmidley stated that the pilots encountered first a yellow then a red light, indicating that the spacecraft’s ascent was too shallow and the nose was insufficiently steep.
Without corrective action, the vessel would not have had enough energy to return to its runway.
“According to multiple sources in the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort,” Schmidt wrote – although Virgin disputes this.
The aborting dashed flamboyant billionaire Branson’s hopes of defeating rival Jeff Bezos, whose flight to space was scheduled for days later.
The pilots did not abort and instead attempted to correct the trajectory problem, now flying with a red light at Mach 3.
The ship reached 85 kilometers (52 mi) altitude – well above the US definition of space – and landed safely, but data obtained from Flightradar 24 showed that it had flown out of its designated path.
– ‘misleading’ –
“Whether or not the (pilots’) decision was driven by programmatic pressures and the expectations of their billionaire bankroller sitting behind is unclear,” Schmidt wrote.
Virgin Galactic told AFP it disputed the “misleading characterization and conclusion in the New Yorker article”.
“When the vehicle encountered high altitude winds that altered the trajectory, pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure it remained within mission standards,” the statement said.
“Our pilots respond to these changing flight conditions exactly as they have been trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures.”
The company acknowledged that the flight had diverged from the initial plan, but showed the deviation to be a short duration of one minute and 43 seconds when it flew below its assigned altitude, not a change in those areas. Instead of.
“The ship never traveled above a population center or posed a danger to the public.”
Virgin Galactic has had close calls and accidents in the past – most notably in 2014 when a crash killed one pilot and injured another.
Schmidley also wrote that key personnel who criticized the company’s security culture had resigned or were fired.
(Except for the title, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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