There are many consequences to this failure. Not the least is what it implies for the financing of the project. After years of delays the costs have gone beyond a billion dollars. More than a third of that money has come from Abar, an investment fund based in Abu Dhabi. (This was made available in return for an undertaking by Virgin to build a space tourism base in the Gulf.) By any measure, this accident will have set back the development program by years. Will backers want to pour ever more money into this black hole?
Then there is the case of Spaceport America in New Mexico, near the small city of Truth & Consequences. This cost local taxpayers $212 million to build in the hope that they would become the center of the new industry of space tourism.
It’s not exactly clear how many people have signed up to ride SpaceShip One – Galactic has claimed that as many as 800 people have paid deposits on the $250,000 fare but the numbers are squishy. For these people the disaster over the Mojave Desert is a sobering wake-up call. What to many must have seemed the prospect of a spectacular joy ride is now better appreciated as a thrill from the very edge of what is safely attainable. (11/1)
Flight Path to Disaster: A Clash of High Risk and Hyperbole (Source: Daily Beast)
All Virgin Galactic test flying was done under an FAA experimental permit. To reach the point where SpaceShip Two could carry passengers Virgin needed an operator’s license. That required a new 180-day review by the FAA to establish that all the systems were thoroughly tested and fail-safe. But this was uncharted territory for the FAA just as it was for Virgin. By submitting to the FAA review Virgin was being asked to set the standards for all who followed.
It was a very tall order. Branson wanted a vehicle that could carry six passengers, two pilots and reach a speed of 2,500mph and a height of around 65 miles, ten times the height at which an airliner cruises. When the FAA certifies a new airliner it is normal for the airplane builder, like Boeing, to put as many a six airplanes into the test program, all flying at the same time, to test every aspect of the design and its safety. Even then it can take several years to receive certification.
But here Virgin was fielding only one vehicle that embodied a whole set of completely untried systems. Everything was being staked on the two test pilots being able to anticipate potential failures and the ground engineers likewise poring over the test results to detect weak points before they had catastrophic results. Despite this, Virgin asked the FAA to begin their review for the operator’s license in August 2013, and that was when the 180-day clock started ticking. Click here. (11/1)
Change Likely to Limits on FAA Spaceflight Regulation (Source: SPACErePORT)
At the urging of launch industry advocates in 2004, Congress moved to limit the ability of the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to promulgate new safety regulations for the emerging commercial human spaceflight industry. A eight-year "moratorium" on new regulations (called a "learning period") was put in place to prevent the infant industry from being smothered by government oversight.
In 2012, given the industry's continued lack of flight experience, Congress extended the moratorium until October 1, 2015. So, in essence, Congress has limited the FAA's ability to develop new regulations that might have made Virgin Galactic's operations more safe. In lieu of taking regulatory action, FAA-AST took steps to work with spaceflight carriers so they could gain insight into safety issues and draft regulations that could be promulgated after the moratorium expired.
Unfortunately, given the Republican leadership's disdain for government regulation, Congress also has severely underfunded FAA-AST, affording the shortstaffed office a limited capability to perform the kinds of oversight and coordination required to adequately plan for the industry's safe operations. Perhaps one positive development from the Virgin Galactic disaster will be a better funded and more capable FAA-AST. (11/2)
Virgin Repeatedly Warned by Experts About Safety Issues (Source: Daily Mail)
Space flight experts have accused Virgin Galactic of ignoring warnings over its safety procedures in the wake of a fatal explosion aboard one of its spacecraft. Senior engineers and propulsion scientists say they spent years telling Richard Branson's private space line its procedures are 'outdated', needlessly secretive, and could lead to people getting killed. Michael Alsbury, 39, died at the controls of Virgin's experimental SpaceShipTwo vessel on Friday after the sub-orbital plane exploded at 45,000ft shortly after engaging its engines. His co-pilot, Peter Siebold, was seriously injured.
And, in a further sign of upheaval at Virgin Galactic, it was revealed that top engineers in charge of safety, aerodynamics and the propulsion system have all recently quit the company. Many of the warnings stem from a 2007 engine test disaster in the Mojave Desert that killed three employees of Virgin Galactic's partner company, Scaled Composites. Some have accused Branson's project of ignoring industry standards and refusing to share its procedures in its eagerness to perfect commercial space flight, which it has regularly estimated is just months from completion.
One expert called the design and testing process a 'Russian roulette' which was bound to kill someone. Geoff Daly also revealed that he wrote to the U.S. Chemical Safety Board urging them to do something about his safety concerns over SpaceShipTwo. Writing in July 2013, he said even the company's own engineers privately doubted that their venture was safe. Click here. (11/1)
Branson Spaceship Explosion: The 'Missed' Warnings (Source: The Telegaph)
Virgin Galactic, in an attempt at damage limitation, initially dismissed the explosion as an “anomaly”. However, aerospace experts insisted that it had been a disaster waiting to happen. Tom Bower, an investigative journalist and Sir Richard’s biographer, described the crash as “predictable and inevitable”. He said: “It’s a very crude rocket.”
Carolynne Campbell, the lead expert on rocket propulsion at the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), said: “This explosion is not a surprise. None whatsoever, I am sorry to say. It is exactly what I was expecting. It was Russian roulette which test flight blew up.” In emails sent by Geoff Daly, a US-based British rocket scientist, to officials at the FAA last year, he warned of another disaster if test flights were given the go-ahead.
Tomasso Sgobba, executive director of IAASS and the former head of safety at the European Space Agency, said that Virgin Galactic had refused to share information with industry experts outside the company and declined to have its rocket design peer-reviewed. Representatives of Virgin Galactic had refused to come to IAASS meetings, he said. (11/1)
Deceased Virgin Galactic Pilot Identified (Source: Daily Mail)
The pilot who died in a tragic accident aboard Virgin's SpaceShipTwo has been identified. Michael Alsbury, a father of two and pilot with Scaled Composites, was killed on Friday when SpaceShipTwo exploded just minutes after it detached from its mother ship, WhiteKnightTwo. Michelle Saling, Alsbury's widow, told MailOnline, 'I have lost the love of my life. I am living in hell right now.'
Alsbury had flown numerous missions on SpaceShipTwo for years, including the all important first successful rocket-powered run in April 2013. He was also the pilot in the first glide flight back in 2010, and flew as recently as August 28 of this year. In video from the 2013 mission, it is clear what a humble man Alsbury was, and just how dedicated he was to his job. (11/1)
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