{"id":15956,"date":"2015-11-02T20:01:44","date_gmt":"2015-11-02T12:01:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactic-in-transition-one-year-after-fatal-accident\/"},"modified":"2015-11-02T20:01:44","modified_gmt":"2015-11-02T12:01:44","slug":"virgin-galactic-in-transition-one-year-after-fatal-accident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactic-in-transition-one-year-after-fatal-accident\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic in transition one year after fatal accident"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Virgin
Virgin Galactic\u2019s second SpaceShipTwo vehicle goes \u201cweight on wheels\u201d in Mojave in May. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last year\u2019s fatal crash of Virgin Galactic\u2019s suborbital rocket plane has delayed the start of the company\u2019s commercial operations at least a year, prompting a change in mindset from a \u201cperiod of euphoria to a period of real, measurable, but tough progress\u201d as the enterprise backed by Richard Branson enters the second decade since its founding.<\/p>\n

Despite the setback, Virgin Galactic\u2019s two-pronged approach to easing access to space for the public and lean budget satellite missions remains intact, but with a few changes to the SpaceShipTwo and LauncherOne vehicles.<\/p>\n

Engineers have crafted a device to safeguard against the immediate cause of last year\u2019s mishap \u2014 the premature deployment of SpaceShipTwo\u2019s braking feathers \u2014 and continue tinkering with the space plane\u2019s rocket fuel mixture.<\/p>\n

And Virgin Galactic\u2019s LauncherOne program, sized to carry small satellites into orbit, is growing bigger, both in terms of the rocket\u2019s dimensions and the development effort behind it.<\/p>\n

George Whitesides, the company\u2019s chief executive, gave an update on the recovery efforts nearly a year after a crash of the company\u2019s suborbital rocket plane, which killed co-pilot Michael Alsbury and injured the craft\u2019s lead pilot after an in-flight breakup 10 miles above California\u2019s Mojave Desert on Oct. 31, 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that we are moving from sort of a period of euphoria to a period of real, measurable, but tough progress,\u201d Whitesides said last month at the International Symposium for Personal and Commercial Spaceflight in Las Cruces, New Mexico. \u201cI think on the other side of that is real commercial success and really transformative things happening in space.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Spaceflight Now members can read a transcript of our full interview with George Whitesides. Become a member today and support our coverage.<\/h6>\n
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Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic has expanded its staff by 15 to 20 percent since last year\u2019s accident, and Whitesides said the company has never been stronger from a human perspective.<\/p>\n

The death of Alsbury, who was an employee of SpaceShipTwo builder Scaled Composites, and the technical setback of the crash was a \u201ctough blow\u201d for Virgin Galactic, Whitesides said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it is one that will not define the company,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is one that we must move past, and that we are moving past with determination and spirit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitesides would not predict when the company would resume SpaceShipTwo flights in an interview with Spaceflight Now, but he said 2016 will be a year full of testing.<\/p>\n

\"Technicians
Technicians install SpaceShipTwo\u2019s forward pressuring tank. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The second space-rated SpaceShipTwo vehicle is nearing completion inside a hangar at Virgin Galactic\u2019s operations and test center in Mojave, California.<\/p>\n

The next SpaceShipTwo, which has not been named, achieved a milestone called \u201cweight on wheels\u201d in May. Since then, technicians have mated the spacecraft to Virgin\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier jet for the first time and begun installing the oxidizer tank into SpaceShipTwo.<\/p>\n

Whitesides said the new version of SpaceShipTwo has few differences from the first vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe airframe itself we think is sound, and the propsulion system is sound,\u201d Whitesides said in a presentation at the ISPCS conference last month. \u201cWe required very few changes to the vehicle following our test flight accident.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal investigators concluded the technical cause of last year\u2019s crash of the first SpaceShipTwo flight vehicle, named the VSS Enterprise, was the premature unlocking of the craft\u2019s tail feathering system by Alsbury.<\/p>\n

Procedures called for the feathering system, which is used to re-orient and slow down the spacecraft during descent, to be unlocked later in SpaceShipTwo\u2019s flight sequence, when the craft is speeding through less air resistance. Instead, Alsbury unlocked the tail booms at eight-tenths of the speed of sound \u2014 Mach 0.8 \u2014 just seconds after SpaceShipTwo dropped from its huge WhiteKnightTwo mothership and fired its hybrid rocket motor.<\/p>\n

Although the flight crew never sent commands to deploy the feathers, the strong aerodynamic forces in the lower, denser part of the atmosphere pushed the unlocked tail booms upward into their re-entry positions, leading to loss of control and the disintegration of the rocket plane.<\/p>\n

The NTSB also cited Scaled Composites\u2019 failure to address the risks and consequences of a pilot-induced error, raising chances that a catastrophic accident could be instigated by a single mistake.<\/p>\n

In an interview with Spaceflight Now, Whitesides said future SpaceShipTwo flights will include a mechanism that prevents the premature unlocking of the feathers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the No. 1 change, and we\u2019ll make sure that\u2019s integrated before we resume test flights,\u201d Whitesides said.<\/p>\n

\"George
George Whitesides speaks to Virgin Galactic\u2019s team in Mojave, California, after accomplishing the \u201cweight on wheels\u201d milestone in the assembly of the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle. Virgin Galactic\u2019s subsidiary, The Spaceship Company, is building the vehicle. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But major programmatic changes are also in store.<\/p>\n

The new SpaceShipTwo rocket plane is the first to be manufactured by a Virgin subsidiary named The Spaceship Company, or TSC. Virgin pilots will be at the controls when flights take off again, replacing test pilots from Scaled Composites, SpaceShipTwo\u2019s designer and original builder.<\/p>\n

Version two of SpaceShipTwo in the works<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The final bond to mate the oxidizer tank with SpaceShipTwo\u2019s airframe is expected before the end of the year, and assembly crews are adding plumbing for the ship\u2019s propulsion system and installing electrical wiring, pneumatics and avionics boxes. Technicians are working on three shifts to complete the vehicle, according to Whitesides.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working very hard to build this vehicle right, but also build it with pace,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A new seat design will also debut on the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle, Whitesides said.<\/p>\n

Another milestone Whitesides revealed was a fatigue test designed to ensure the suborbital craft\u2019s pressurized cabin can withstand thousands of cycles over its operational life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re getting close to being done with the vehicle,\u201d Whitesides said. \u201cWe want make sure that we\u2019re just taking our time, but moving quickly. It\u2019s a balance between those two things. We\u2019re making progress, and 2016 will be filled with lots of testing, and that\u2019s good.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engineers have continued test firings of SpaceShipTwo\u2019s hybrid propulsion system during the yearlong grounding, and Virgin Galactic officials expect to use a rubber-based solid fuel called HTPB for the rocket motor when flights resume.<\/p>\n

That is a change from the plastic-based fuel used on the ill-fated Oct. 31, 2014, flight, which itself was a switch from rubber fuels on earlier SpaceShipTwo motors. Data on the rocket motor firing in the seconds before last year\u2019s crash \u2014 its first in-flight firing \u2014 showed it performed as intended.<\/p>\n

In a presentation at the ISPCS industry meeting, Whitesides showed video clips of recent rocket tests at Virgin\u2019s Mojave facility burning HTPB, and he told Spaceflight Now that the company will finalize the motor design soon.<\/p>\n

\"Virgin
Virgin Galactic\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane releases the first SpaceShipTwo vehicle on a glide flight over California\u2019s Mojave Desert. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Virgin Galactic announced in May 2014 it was going with the alternate plastic-based fuel cartridge, which engineers said offered better combustion stability and more performance than the motor with the original rubber fuel grain, which was developed by Sierra Nevada Corp.<\/p>\n

Propulsion work at Virgin Galactic moved in-house with the motor change, and the company ended its partnership with Sierra Nevada.<\/p>\n

The hybrid motor works by combining liquid nitrous oxide with pre-packed solid fuel. SpaceShipTwo\u2019s motor generates up to 60,000 pounds thrust, then naturally tails off toward the end of its burn to ease g-forces on passengers.<\/p>\n

Once SpaceShipTwo is ready, engineers will put it through a series of tests, first on the ground and then airborne.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll do all the same stages, but each of those stages will be shorter than they were with the first vehicle,\u201d Whitesides said in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019ll do ground testing, then we\u2019ll do captive carry, then glide flights, and then powered flight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whitesides did not say when commercial service could begin with SpaceShipTwo.<\/p>\n

Virgin shopping for new LauncherOne carrier aircraft<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic\u2019s other major program, the LauncherOne orbital rocket, is going through its own changes as designers step through a sequence of ground firings of liquid-fueled engines for the air-launched booster.<\/p>\n

Officially unveiled in 2012, LauncherOne is one of several privately-funded rockets taking aim at the small satellite market. Lightweight satellites, such as the burgeoning CubeSat movement, currently rely on hitching rides on large rockets as secondary payloads.<\/p>\n

\"Artist's
Artist\u2019s concept of LauncherOne. Credit: Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But LauncherOne, like its competitors, is designed with dedicated small satellite launches in mind.<\/p>\n

Virgin Galactic announced in September it was equipping the two-stage with rocket bigger fuel tanks, an upgrade that will allow LauncherOne to increase its carrying capacity to sun-synchronous orbit \u2014 a perch favored by Earth observation satellites \u2014 from 120 kilograms (264 pounds) to 200 kilograms (440 pounds).<\/p>\n

The launcher program\u2019s affordability goal remains the same, with each LauncherOne flight pegged to cost customers less than $10 million. That means the price-per-kilogram goes down, officials said.<\/p>\n

A survey of the small satellite market in the coming years indicated LauncherOne\u2019s original capability was not enough for many prospective customers, according to Steve Isakowitz, Virgin Galactic\u2019s president.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, we had the kind of design, through the engines that we were building, that without actually making any changes to the engines themselves, but just by stretching the vehicle, we were able to get a vehicle that essentially could double its performance for about the same price point,\u201d Isakowitz said Oct. 14.<\/p>\n

Speaking at a NASA press conference announcing a $4.7 million launch contract between the space agency and Virgin, Isakowitz said the upsized rocket will require a different carrier aircraft. Virgin initially planned to deploy the rocket from the belly of WhiteKnightTwo in similar fashion as SpaceShipTwo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going to be flying on a commercial aircraft, and we do expect, in a coming short while, to announce exactly what aircraft we are going to be flying on,\u201d Isakowitz told reporters.<\/p>\n