The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has provided details into the probable cause of the SpaceShipTwo failure during last year\u2019s test flight. The investigation found co-pilot error and procedural issues relating to the SS2\u2019s feather system were to blame. With the investigation now closed, Virgin Galactic are building a new spacecraft with modifications to mitigate a repeat issue.\n<\/p>\n
SpaceShipTwo Tragedy:<\/p>\n
Hailed as the gateway to space tourism, the suborbital vehicle was developed from the historic advancements made by the world\u2019s first manned private spacecraft SpaceShipOne (SS1).<\/p>\n
SS2 is the design of renowned aircraft designer Burt Rutan and his company, Scaled Composites \u2013 the latter in charge of the ill-fated test flight in October 2014.<\/p>\n
![\"2015-03-19](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/2015-03-19-23_20_51-Spaceport-America-Updates_Photos-March-7-2015-onwards-350x242.jpg\")
Initially, the plan, under the leadership of Virgin head Sir Richard Branson, was to launch passengers by 2008. The start date continued to slip by years, but the company claimed interest failed to diminish, with claims of several hundred customers paying a hefty deposit for rides on SS2.<\/p>\n
The customers will only enjoy a few minutes of micro-G, but will get to spend several days of training, prior to boarding a SS2 from the newly built Spaceport America in New Mexico.<\/p>\n
Testing towards that start date had proceeded without a major flight incident, prior to the October test.<\/p>\n
![\"SS2](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/Z3191.jpg\")
The test flight began with SS2 being lofted to around 47,000 feet altitude over the Mojave desert by the WhiteKnight2 (WK2) carrier aircraft. SS2 was nominally released from WK2.<\/p>\n
NASA mission patches (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/p>\n Once the two vehicles were clear of each other, the pilots triggered ignition of the rocket motor, causing the main oxidizer valve to open and igniters to fire within the fuel case.<\/p>\n This was the program\u2019s 55th overall and fourth powered test flight (PF-04) of SpaceShipTwo.<\/p>\n Just seconds into the powered flight, the NTSB concluded that co-pilot Michael Alsbury prematurely unlocked the feathering system. The system is supposed to be unlocked while SpaceShipTwo is traveling at around Mach 1.4.<\/p>\n This pilot error was a large focus of the investigation and it remains a mystery as to why a highly trained pilot would make such an error.<\/p>\n It was cited that there was a large amount of \u201cpressure\u201d on pilots to ensure the feather system was activated during a busy period of the flight milestones, due to fear of the potentially disastrous results of re-entry without deployment.<\/p>\n It was also claimed that the training procedures and checklists failed to emphasise the potential of a flight failure via a premature unlocking of the system.<\/p>\n \u201cSince the feather was unlocked, aerodynamic and inertial loads imposed on the assembly overcame the actuators and the feather extended un-commanded, causing the catastrophic structural failure,\u201d added Ms. Ward.<\/p>\n With the vehicle breaking up, the pilot Peter Siebold was miraculously thrown free of SS2 before his parachute automatically deployed.<\/p>\n The co-pilot remained with the vehicle and was killed.<\/p>\n While videos of the test flight were shown, the webcasted hearing did not show footage of the actual breakup \u2013 for obvious reasons \u2013 although the investigators had witnessed extended videos, including from the cockpit, allowing them to formulate their conclusions.<\/p>\n Most of the NTSB findings were based around technical and procedural matters, but importantly found no issues with the spacecraft itself.<\/p>\n One investigator\u2019s intimation \u2013 claiming the accident was caused by \u201cpilot error on a flawed system\u201d \u2013 mainly related to the single-fault \u2013 or single-point \u2013 tolerant issue of prematurely unlocking the feather system and such an actions ability to result in vehicle break-up.<\/p>\n This was later stressed via the finding that: \u201cThe recovered vehicle components showed no evidence of any structural system or rocket motor failures before the in-flight breakup.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhile it is good to have passed this milestone and be able to focus on the future, we are acutely aware that it does not alter the fact that this was at heart a human tragedy. Our thoughts go out again today to the family, friends and colleagues of Mike,\u201d noted Sir Richard Branson.<\/p>\n \u201cThe NTSB board also looked closely at whether the Scaled Composite\u2019s accident meant Virgin Galactic should change its own procedures for future test flights and commercial operations, or indeed the design of future vehicles.<\/p>\n Moving forward, Virgin Galactic will evaluate a new test schedule, but will now be in full control of completing the test program ahead of commercial flights.<\/p>\n \u201cScaled Composites was responsible for all aspects of the flight test program at the time of the accident. Subsequently, Virgin Galactic has assumed full responsibility for the completion of SpaceShipTwo flight test program and the commercial operations which will follow,\u201d added the company in a document released later on Tuesday.<\/p>\n \u201cWe remain as humbled as ever by the difficulty of our work and the challenges of space. To date, only 549 people have gone to space and we are as passionate and resolved as ever to increase that number,\u201d added CEO George T. Whitesides. \u201cThe goal of people around the world to access space is as unwavering as the commitment of our team and brave pilots like Mike.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are encouraged by the progress to date with our second spaceship, and we look to the future with hope and determination.\u201d<\/p>\n While NTSB chairman Christopher Hart noted the investigation would echo throughout the commercial space sector, hopefully preventing a similar accident recurring, Sir Richard Branson is hopeful his company can now move on and fulfill its ambitions.<\/p>\n \u201cWith the investigation completed, Virgin Galactic can now focus fully on the future with a clean bill of health and a strengthened resolve to achieve its goals.\u201d<\/p>\n (Images via Virgin Galactic and the NTSB \u2013 New Spaceport America photo via L2).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has provided details into the probable cause of the SpaceShipTwo failure during last year\u2019s test flight. The investigation found co-pilot error and procedural issues relating to the SS2\u2019s feather system were to blame. With the investigation now closed, Virgin Galactic are building a new spacecraft with modifications to mitigate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30493,"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":[8919],"class_list":["post-39281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-ss2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39281"}],"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=39281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"2015-07-28-220518\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-220518-350x245.jpg\")
\u201cData shows that the feather moved, even though we know that neither pilot had deployed the feather,\u201d noted the NTSB\u2019s Lorenda Ward. \u201cHowever, the cockpit video showed that the co-pilot unlocked the feather.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"2015-07-28-225522\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-225522-350x291.jpg\")
A lack of flight experience with the stresses of a real flight, versus simulator training, was also mentioned.<\/p>\n![\"2015-07-28-214346\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-214346-350x258.jpg\")
Virgin Galactic released an amazing photo of Mr. Siebold under chute moments after the accident. He was seriously injured during the accident.<\/p>\nSee Also<\/h4>\n
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![\"2015-07-28-221452\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-221452-350x224.jpg\")
While the accident will be forever painful for all involved, Virgin Galactic can now continue to progress towards the final construction of the replacement vehicle (SS2-002), which they are building in-house.<\/p>\n![\"2015-07-28-221826\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-221826-350x221.jpg\")
\u201cWe cooperated fully with the investigation, and the NTSB has made no recommendations for the company. Over the past months, our engineers have already designed a mechanism to prevent the feather from being unlocked at the wrong time.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"2015-07-28-224727\"](\"https:\/\/www.nasaspaceflight.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-28-224727-350x210.jpg\")
The company has also set out a set of requirements for all of its active pilots, while updating its procedures and checklists.<\/p>\n