Virgin Galactic conducted its first test flight of its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle in more than five months Jan. 11 as the company prepares to begin powered test flights of the vehicle.
The glide flight, conducted in the skies above the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, was the seventh for the second SpaceShipTwo, named VSS Unity, dating back to December 2016. Pilots Mark Stucky and Michael Masucci landed the vehicle at the airport after a successful flight.
The glide flight was the first for SpaceShipTwo since one in early August. The company said in a statement that it had spent the intervening months on "extensive analysis, testing and small modifications to ensure vehicle readiness for the higher loads and forces of powered test flight."
Virgin Galactic tested those modifications on the glide flight, as the pilots pushed the vehicle into a steep descent shortly after release from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft, reaching a top speed of Mach 0.9. That is the fastest the vehicle can fly without igniting its hybrid rocket motor, according to the company.
This flight may be the last glide test before the vehicle begins powered test flights. "I think we'll probably do one more glide flight, and then we'll be ready to go into powered flight," George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said in a presentation at the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference in Broomfield, Colorado, Dec. 18.
[...] Virgin Galactic's first SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, was lost in an accident in a powered test flight in October 2014, the fourth for that vehicle. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board concluded the vehicle's co-pilot prematurely unlocked the feathering system for the vehicle that raises its tail for reentry, causing the vehicle to become aerodynamically unstable and break up as it passed through Mach 1. The investigation also blamed vehicle designers for not including safety systems that would have prevented the feathering system from being unlocked during that phase of flight.
Source: http://spacenews.com/spaceshiptwo-performs-glide-flight-in-advance-of-powered-tests/
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- Virgin Galactic Spaceship Makes First Glide Flight
- Virgin Galactic moves on from crash, debuts flashy new spaceship
- Virgin Galactic Crash Due to Pilot Error and Design Flaws
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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.
It's been 16 months since SpaceShipTwo crashed into the Mojave Desert and killed the vehicle's co-pilot Michael Alsbury. On Friday, Virgin Galactic sought to move on from that accident and put the company firmly back on a path toward delivering tourists to the edge of space by unveiling a new version of its spacecraft named VSS Unity.
"I'm really proud of the entire team," said George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, in an interview with Ars. "It's a bunch of folks who came to this company to open space up, and they're not going to be deterred by the accident. They've been working really hard for a year and a half to finish this vehicle."
The new spacecraft is in many ways the same as the original SpaceShipTwo, dubbed Enterprise, Whitesides said. It has the same basic airframe and propulsion systems. The biggest change is to the feather locking system, used to aid in the descent of the spacecraft. During the fatal flight on Oct. 31, 2014, Alsbury prematurely deployed the system while still making a powered ascent. Unity now includes a mechanical pin to prevent the feather lever from moving when the vehicle is flying in an unsafe flight regime.
On 3 December, Virgin Galactic made its first tentative return to space flight.
Virgin Galactic's new spaceship has made a successful first glide flight, a key step after a deadly crash of its predecessor two years ago, the spaceflight company said on Saturday.
The new SpaceShipTwo, dubbed VSS Unity, was hoisted aloft by carrier airplane WhiteKnightTwo VMS Eve from the Mojave Air & Space Port in California, the company said on Twitter.
Released from the mothership, VSS Unity flew home to Earth on its own, according to the company owned by British billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson.
"VSS Unity has landed. Vehicle and crew are back safe and sound after a successful first glide test flight," Virgin Galactic tweeted at #SpaceShipTwo.
Unity's weight was kept light for the first flight, Virgin Galactic said. Its success now opens a phase of tougher flight testing before the spacecraft's hybrid rocket motor will be fired in flight.
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