{"id":19628,"date":"2015-07-29T22:55:34","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:55:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/ntsbs-spaceshiptwo-findings-put-more-pressure-on-faa-in-commercial-space\/"},"modified":"2015-07-29T22:55:34","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T14:55:34","slug":"ntsbs-spaceshiptwo-findings-put-more-pressure-on-faa-in-commercial-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/ntsbs-spaceshiptwo-findings-put-more-pressure-on-faa-in-commercial-space\/","title":{"rendered":"NTSB\u2019s SpaceShipTwo findings put more pressure on FAA in commercial space"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_190258\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190258\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full-width wp-image-190258\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/150729-ss2-620x346.jpg\" alt=\"SpaceShipTwo\" width=\"620\" height=\"346\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/150729-ss2-620x346.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/150729-ss2.jpg 868w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-190258\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A video screengrab shows SpaceShipTwo\u2019s wings in their \u201cfeathered\u201d position moments before the rocket plane\u2019s breakup on Oct. 31, 2014. (Credit: Virgin Galactic \/ NTSB)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The recommendations coming out of a federal investigation of last October\u2019s fatal SpaceShipTwo breakup&nbsp;are likely to add to the challenges facing the commercial spaceflight industry&nbsp;\u2013 but they could also provide an opportunity to do something about those challenges.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey gave us some work to do, and we embrace it,\u201d Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, told GeekWire.<\/p>\n<p>The National Transportation Safety Board\u2019s recommendations, issued at the end of its nine-month probe&nbsp;of the fatal crash, focus at least as much on the Federal Aviation Administration as on Scaled Composites, the California company that was in charge of testing Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane.<\/p>\n<p>One of Scaled\u2019s test pilots, Mike Alsbury, died in the Oct. 31 accident. The other&nbsp;pilot, Pete Siebold, was injured during the breakup but managed to parachute to safety.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_190255\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-190255\" style=\"width: 620px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-190255 size-full-width\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/150729-parachute2-620x402.jpg\" alt=\"Pete Siebold with parachute\" width=\"620\" height=\"402\"><figcaption data-nosnippet=\"\" id=\"caption-attachment-190255\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A photo taken just after the breakup of Virgin Galactic\u2019s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane on Oct. 31, 2014, shows pilot Pete Siebold raising his arm as he parachutes to safety. Siebold\u2019s right shoulder was seriously injured during the accident. (Credit: Mark Greenberg \/ Virgin Galactic)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The NTSB said that a single error by Alsbury&nbsp;\u2013 pulling a wing-unlocking lever too soon&nbsp;\u2013 caused the accident, and that Scaled should have done more to make the system fail-safe. The board also said federal inspectors&nbsp;should have exercised more oversight over the SpaceShipTwo project. It recommended that the FAA keep a closer eye on spaceship developers in the future. (Check the NTSB\u2019s summary for details.)<\/p>\n<p>FAA spokesman Hank Price told GeekWire that his agency \u201ctakes all NTSB recommendations seriously\u201d and would respond within 90 days.<\/p>\n<p>The call for closer coordination highlights a challenge that\u2019s already been a source of concern: Virgin Galactic and other&nbsp;spaceflight companies are accelerating their progress toward the&nbsp;goal of sending paying passengers into outer space, but the federal government isn\u2019t keeping pace.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Video shown during NTSB Board Meeting on in-flight breakup of SpaceShipTwo near Mojave, CA.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Qv8Y0aMNix8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen=\"\" data-ratio=\"0.5625\" data-width=\"800\" data-height=\"450\" style=\"display: block; margin: 0px; width: 800px; height: 450px;\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Here are just a few of the developments expected by the end of the year:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Virgin Galactic is due to finish construction of a second SpaceShipTwo rocket plane and begin testing at California\u2019s Mojave Air and Space Port.<\/li>\n<li>Blue Origin, the Kent-based venture founded by Amazon CEO&nbsp;Jeff Bezos, plans to launch another&nbsp;New Shepard prototype space vehicle from its Texas launch facility as a follow-up to April\u2019s supersonic&nbsp;test flight in April.<\/li>\n<li>XCOR Aerospace is aiming to start flight tests of its Lynx suborbital space plane in Mojave.<\/li>\n<li>Sierra Nevada Corp. will put a prototype for its Dream Chaser mini-shuttle through an atmospheric flight test in connection with NASA\u2019s spaceship development program.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Next year, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen\u2019s Stratolaunch super-airplane is expected to go into testing, with the aim of launching payloads into orbit soon afterward.<\/p>\n<p>For more than a year, FAA officials have been warning Congress about a paperwork traffic jam&nbsp;\u2013 and they\u2019ve called for a $1.5 million increase in&nbsp;the Office of Commercial Space Transportation\u2019s $16.6 million budget. For now, the issue is stuck in legislative limbo, but Stallmer said the NTSB report adds to the evidence showing that the FAA needs a boost.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrankly, I think they need to be bigger. I\u2019m all for increasing their budget,\u201d Stallmer said. \u201cThey\u2019re consistently being asked to do more with less, and it\u2019s a challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" size-full wp-image-188079 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png\" alt=\"pluto\" width=\"250\" height=\"189\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1.png 250w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-200x151.png 200w, https:\/\/cdn.geekwire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/pluto1-132x100.png 132w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\"><br \/>\n<strong>Science journalist Alan Boyle<\/strong>&nbsp;is the author of &#8220;The Case for Pluto: How a Little Planet Made A Big Difference.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The NTSB\u2019s findings are also likely to&nbsp;focus attention on the FAA\u2019s big-picture role in regulating vs. supporting a fledgling industry. Past legislation has limited the FAA to ensuring the safety of the \u201cuninvolved public\u201d when it comes to spaceship development, while taking a fly-at-your-own-risk stance toward passengers and crew. Congress is currently debating how much longer that situation should continue. The FAA wants it&nbsp;to end.<\/p>\n<p>Stallmer noted that the FAA has a free hand to respond as necessary to serious incidents like the SpaceShipTwo breakup, Stallmer noted.&nbsp;\u201cIf there are areas of safety concern, in the case of SpaceShipTwo, the FAA can come down with regulations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>But he\u2019d hate to see so many new regulations that innovation is stifled.&nbsp;\u201cWe want to foster the growth of this industry, and I believe the FAA is on board with that,\u201d Stallmer said.<\/p>\n<p>The next 90 days should show which way the wind is blowing&nbsp;\u2013 not only for Virgin Galactic and SpaceShipTwo, but for the rest of the commercial spaceflight industry as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A video screengrab shows SpaceShipTwo\u2019s wings in their \u201cfeathered\u201d position moments before the rocket plane\u2019s breakup on Oct. 31, 2014. (Credit: Virgin Galactic \/ NTSB) The recommendations coming out of a federal investigation of last October\u2019s fatal SpaceShipTwo breakup&nbsp;are likely to add to the challenges facing the commercial spaceflight industry&nbsp;\u2013 but they could also provide [&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":[509,318,1046,2672,1973,492,4949],"class_list":["post-19628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-blue-origin","tag-faa","tag-jeff-bezos","tag-paul-allen","tag-spaceshiptwo","tag-virgin-galactic","tag-vulcan-aerospace"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19628"}],"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=19628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}