{"id":16869,"date":"2014-11-03T20:11:49","date_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:11:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/virgin-galactic-rocket-plane-deployed-braking-system-prematurely\/"},"modified":"2014-11-03T20:11:49","modified_gmt":"2014-11-03T12:11:49","slug":"virgin-galactic-rocket-plane-deployed-braking-system-prematurely","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/virgin-galactic-rocket-plane-deployed-braking-system-prematurely\/","title":{"rendered":"Virgin Galactic rocket plane deployed braking system prematurely"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_835\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-835\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-835\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2.png\" alt=\"NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart describes SpaceShipTwo's feathering system in a media briefing Sunday. Credit: NTSB\" width=\"620\" height=\"347\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2.png 1433w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2-300x168.png 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2-768x430.png 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2-1024x573.png 1024w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/hart2-678x381.png 678w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-835\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart describes SpaceShipTwo\u2019s feathering system in a media briefing Sunday. Credit: NTSB<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane disintegrated in mid-air after two tail stabilizers prematurely extended, federal investigators said Sunday, a discovery that could shift the focus of the probe into Friday\u2019s fatal crash away from the craft\u2019s rocket motor.<\/p>\n<p>But the National Transportation Safety Board\u2019s acting chairman Christopher Hart cautioned against jumping to conclusions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I\u2019m about to say is a statement of fact and not a statement of cause,\u201d Hart said. \u201cWe are a long way from finding cause. We still have months and months of investigation to do, and there\u2019s a lot that we don\u2019t know. We have extensive data sources to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An analysis of telemetry and video recorded aboard the doomed space plane has revealed SpaceShipTwo\u2019s novel braking system deployed earlier than designed.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket plane\u2019s rear-mounted feathering system is supposed to extend before the ship descends back into the atmosphere from space, slowing SpaceShipTwo\u2019s speed and putting the craft into a belly-down position during re-entry.<\/p>\n<p>But SpaceShipTwo\u2019s twin tail booms rotated upward seconds after it fired a hybrid rocket motor following a drop from Virgin Galactic\u2019s WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane 50,000 feet above California\u2019s Mojave Desert.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_829\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-829\" style=\"width: 621px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-829\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ff01.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceShipTwo's feathering system is seen deployed on a test flight in 2011. Credit: Clay Center Observatory\/Virgin Galactic\" width=\"621\" height=\"420\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ff01.jpg 2734w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ff01-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ff01-768x519.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/11\/ff01-1024x692.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 621px) 100vw, 621px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-829\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">SpaceShipTwo\u2019s feathering system is seen deployed on a test flight in 2011. Credit: Clay Center Observatory\/Virgin Galactic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The NTSB is leading the investigation into Friday\u2019s crash, and Hart said Sunday that ShipShipTwo\u2019s co-pilot moved a lever inside the space plane\u2019s cockpit to unlock the tail feathers, which are normally pointed toward the rear of the vehicle when it flies under rocket power.<\/p>\n<p>The co-pilot on Friday\u2019s flight \u2014 39-year-old Michael Alsbury \u2014 died in the accident. Alsbury\u2019s co-workers at Scaled Composites, builder of SpaceShipTwo, have established a memorial fund.<\/p>\n<p>Pilot Peter Siebold, 43, was able to get free of the space plane and parachute to the ground. He was hospitalized with serious injuries.<\/p>\n<p>The rocket\u2019s hybrid rocket motor, consuming a mix of nitrous oxide and a plastic-based solid fuel mix, ignited a few seconds after SpaceShipTwo\u2019s release from the carrier aircraft. Friday\u2019s test flight marked the first time the rocket motor was used on SpaceShipTwo since Virgin Galactic switched from a rubber-based to a plastic-based fuel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbout nine seconds after the engine ignited, the telemetry data showed us that the feather parameters changed from lock to unlock,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>According to Hart, a camera mounted inside SpaceShipTwo\u2019s cockpit showed Alsbury move a handle to unlock the feather system as the rocket plane passed Mach 1 \u2014 the speed of sound.<\/p>\n<p>Such action on a SpaceShipTwo flight is not expected until the rocket plane reaches Mach 1.4, Hart told reporters in a press conference Sunday night in Mojave, Calif.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vjYVhGvUSNc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>\u201cNormal launch procedures are that after the release, the ignition of the rocket and acceleration, that the feathering devices are not to be moved \u2014 the lock\/unlock lever is not to be moved into the unlock position \u2014 until the acceleration up to Mach 1.4. Instead, as indicated, that occurred (at) approximately Mach 1.0,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>The tail booms extended after they were unlocked, even though they were not commanded to do so, Hart said.&nbsp;SpaceShipTwo\u2019s pilots normally must unlock the feathers, then send a separate command to move the tail booms into position for descent.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was what we would call an uncommanded feather, which means the feather occurred without the feather lever being moved into the feather position,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter it was unlocked, the feathers moved into the deployed position, and two seconds later we saw disintegration,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShortly after the feathering occurred, the telemtry data terminated and the video data terminated,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>The video embedded below shows how SpaceShipTwo\u2019s feathering system works from a camera attached to one of the ship\u2019s tail booms on a previous flight.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pwm3leZu-O0?start=106&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The performance of SpaceShipTwo\u2019s rocket motor, which was flying for the first time with a new type of propellant, was normal up until the extension of the rocket plane\u2019s tail feathers, according to Hart.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators combing the five-mile-long debris field have located SpaceShipTwo\u2019s rocket motor and propellant tanks, which were found intact and show no sign of burn-through or breaching, according to Hart. Some of the rocket plane\u2019s wreckage has been moved into hangars for examination.<\/p>\n<p>Six video cameras and six data recorders on-board SpaceShipTwo will also help the investigation, Hart said, along with footage from the space plane\u2019s carrier plane, ground-based imagers, and eyewitness interviews. Investigators also planned to interview Siebold, the surviving pilot.<\/p>\n<p>When asked if Sunday\u2019s revelation would put the focus of the investigation on pilot error, Hart said the NTSB is not ruling anything out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe are looking at a number of possibilities, including that possibility,\u201d Hart said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to emphasize that we have not determined the cause,\u201d Hart said. \u201cI am not stating that this is the cause of this mishap. We have months and months of investigation to determine what the cause was. We\u2019ll be looking at training issues, we\u2019ll be looking at was there pressure to continue testing, we\u2019ll be looking at safety culture. We\u2019ll be looking at the design (and) the procedure. We\u2019ve got many, many issues to look into much more extensively before we can determine the cause.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is much that we don\u2019t know, and our investigation is far from over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Friday\u2019s test flight was the next step to realize Virgin Galactic\u2019s plans to start operational service with SpaceShipTwo by next spring, ferrying paying passengers to a speed three-and-a-half times the speed of sound at an altitude of more than 100 kilometers, or 62 miles, above Earth \u2014 the internationally-recognized boundary of space.<\/p>\n<p>Passengers at that altitude could unstrap from their seats and float around the rocket plane\u2019s six-person cabin for a few minutes before gliding back to the ground for landing on a runway.<\/p>\n<p>Virgin Galactic issued a statement Sunday defending the company\u2019s safety record and urging against speculation on the cause of Friday\u2019s mishap.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt Virgin Galactic, we are dedicated to opening the space frontier, while keeping safety as our \u2018North Star\u2019. This has guided every decision we have made over the past decade, and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically untrue,\u201d the company said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have the privilege to work with some of the best minds in the space industry, who have dedicated their lives to the development of technologies to enable the continued exploration of space,\u201d the company said. \u201cAll of us at Virgin Galactic understand the importance of our mission and the significance of creating the first ever commercial spaceline. This is not a mission that anyone takes lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The company, founded by Virgin Group\u2019s Richard Branson, said it would not comment on the investigation while the NTSB is doing its work.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow is not the time for speculation,\u201d the company said. \u201cNow is the time to focus on all those affected by this tragic accident and to work with the experts at the NTSB, to get to the bottom of what happened on that tragic day, and to learn from it so that we can move forward safely with this important mission.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart describes SpaceShipTwo\u2019s feathering system in a media briefing Sunday. Credit: NTSB Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane disintegrated in mid-air after two tail stabilizers prematurely extended, federal investigators said Sunday, a discovery that could shift the focus of the probe into Friday\u2019s fatal crash away from the craft\u2019s rocket motor. But [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3989,1973,492],"class_list":["post-16869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-ntsb","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-virgin-galactic"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16869\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}