Friday, September 3rd, 2021
Aviation Inspectorate checks flight
Launch ban for Branson’s space flier
The next test flight is actually supposed to start in a few weeks – but the US aviation regulator may be putting a spanner in the works of the space company Virgin Galactic. The reason for the temporary take-off ban: The plane is said to have deviated from the course on the flight of the company’s founder, Branson.
It is a serious setback for the British billionaire Richard Branson: Due to a problem with the last test flight of his space company Virgin Galactic, the US aviation authority FAA has imposed a temporary take-off ban. The spacecraft of the type “Space Ship Two” should not take off until the FAA has not approved a “final breakdown investigation report” or determined that there is no danger to public safety, the agency said.
It had previously become known that the spacecraft had deviated from the planned flight path on July 11 during a test flight with Branson on board, which received worldwide attention. According to a report from the magazine “New Yorker” an orange and then a red warning light came on during the flight. Accordingly, the plane’s ascent angle was not steep enough.
“According to several sources within the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort,” the article said. The pilots did not abort the mission, but tried to make a correction at three times the speed of sound. Ultimately, the plane reached an altitude of 85 kilometers – according to the US definition, the limit to outer space – and later landed safely at Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America airport in the desert of the US state of New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic clearly disagrees
The FAA has now confirmed that the plane had deviated from the approved course. “The FAA investigation is ongoing.” No further starts are allowed until further notice. The company’s share price has since plunged by five percent. Virgin Galactic dismissed the description in the “New Yorker” article as “misleading”, but admitted that the spaceplane did not cover the planned route. Accordingly, the machine flew 1 minute and 43 seconds lower than planned. However, it was never located above an inhabited area and was not a “danger to the public”.
When high-altitude winds altered Space Ship Two’s trajectory, “the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to make sure it stayed within mission parameters,” the company said. “Our pilots responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions, just as they trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures.”
Commercial business is scheduled to start in 2022
Branson had fulfilled a lifelong dream with the flight – and at the same time defeated his rival Jeff Bezos, who flew into space nine days later on board a rocket from his private space company Blue Origin. The 71-year-old British company founder and adventurer experienced weightlessness for several minutes and later spoke of “the experience of my life”. The flight was staged as a great media spectacle.
Virgin Galactic had actually planned another test flight with members of the Italian Air Force for late September or early October. The paying passengers business should start in early 2022. In early August, Virgin Galactic announced that the ticket price was $ 450,000. Virging Galactic has seen setbacks time and time again. In 2014, the death of a pilot in an accident during a flight caused the program to be severely delayed.
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