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from the the-dangers-of-being-a-test-pilot dept.
The National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) has found that a mix of pilot error and design flaws led to the crash of SpaceShipTwo last year:
The crash of a Virgin Galactic spaceship last fall in California's Mojave Desert was caused by pilot error and design problems, the National Transportation and Safety Board announced Tuesday after a nine-month investigation.
NPR's Geoff Brumfiel reports the NTSB found that SpaceShipTwo broke apart during a test flight on Oct. 31 because the co-pilot prematurely unlocked a section of the space plane's tail used in braking. The pilot survived, but the co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, was killed.
"But investigators found that SpaceShipTwo's design was also to blame. NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt says proper safeguards to prevent such human error weren't in place," Geoff says.
Detailed summary at Wired. Richard Branson's statement [video] in response.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:02AM
(this is from the "English is a crazy language" saga. Try to parse the quoted at letter value, like you've never heard of Virgin Galactic)
A Galactic spaceship flies in the desert.
Actually, it doesn't fly, it just falls. Multiple times, as indicated by the "last fall" (signalling there were some other previous falls, only the last one resulted in a crash)
(large grin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:43AM
That's why Americans should use Autumn. :P
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:45AM
"Galactic" is capitalised, though.
But yes, my brain did go "shouldn't that be 'last fell?'"
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Wednesday July 29 2015, @11:58AM
Oh, yea? What about TFT?
"Translation": Pilot Error and Design Flaw Caused a Galactic Crash on a Virgin?.. or was it just a simple "Galactic Virgin Crash"?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:21PM
Oh, yea? What about TFT?
Well that's because title case is stupid.
I may have mentioned it once or twice in the past...
systemd is Roko's Basilisk
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 29 2015, @01:54PM
Based on the word choice and capitalization I can honestly only see ONE way to parse that sentence fragment, and it happens to make perfect sense.
The crash of a Virgin Galactic spaceship last fall in California's Mojave Desert.
The (crash (of (a (Virgin Galactic) spaceship)) (last fall)) (in (California's Mojave Desert))
There is no possible way to interpret "last fall" as meaning there were previous falls because it doesn't say "spaceship's last fall".
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday July 29 2015, @04:41PM
And with the prepositional phrase, "the crash" would still be the subject, too. "The crash last fell"? No.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"