One the one hand, VG accepted the restricted area. On the other, ever see how large most TFRs are?
So weather forecast was not precise - who’d a thunk of that?
Does the design not have a trend vector for course variation? That was planned for a fast crewed air vehicle a half century ago.
So hypocritical braggart Branson spins PR such as the meaningless ‘safety is out priority’ buzz phrase, complete with slide-by-you statements? Red Flag on his lack of leadership.
Recall Branson peddles climate catastrophism while running airlines that consume large amounts of fossil fuel.
(Virgin Atlantic airlines and now Virgin Goofup space charter.)
Gee Ron. VG should hire you. You seem to know more about everything there is to know than anyone else!!
I probably know a bit more than the average pilot. Forty years in aerospace, developing satellite concepts, leading teams that design and manufacture satellites, acting as test conductor for both ground and space testing, and operating Air Force early warning satellites will give one a modicum of knowledge of space system design. My record stands at 17-0-2 (seventeen successful satellites, no failures, two still in storage).
Though I will admit, I’ve never worked on a launch vehicle. Led the launch system integration effort for a couple of satellites, though, which means I had to work closely with the booster folks.
I curious to see a transcript of the CVR. Who gave the order to ignore the red light…the PIC, or his billionaire boss in the passenger seat?
Since when does the FAA get to regulate “space”?
FAA regulated airspace extends to 60,000’, if they were 20 miles up at the time if deviation, corrected the flight (space) path, how does the FAA get to ground the crew and company?
I totally get the need for precision, and hand flying that part of the profile may not be best practice (if that’s what they in fact did), but absolutely no flight is perfect, never will be.
That’s why we have autopilots and real pilots (not R2D2) in the front seats.
Just my opinion, I could be wrong.
Evidently VG not only learned their lesson, they were able to plan for such contingencies, in that the spacecraft made it back to the planned landing point.
Knowledgeable engineers designed the flight path, knowledgeable engineers determined the typical errors that the vehicle might encounter in flying that path, and knowledgeable engineers place some margin of error for contingencies.
Even in the golden age of Gemini and Apollo, while planning for everything, engineers could not account for everything. There were, especially in the beginning, always some formula or parameter that needed tweaking or, even some physics that were not completely understood and/or not realized until after a flight or two. So then, not thinking of everything, they planned for contingencies.
Hardly any space launch or trajectory is “perfect”. Flight engineers refrain from using such a word, and don’t even like “normal”….so much so, they made up a word; “nominal”. As in “within parameters”, everything looks “nominal”, not in an abort or unsafe state.
So then, VG made a launch and recovery that was by all accounts, “nominal”. Anything other and it would have been off nominal and at best, unable land at the intended site.
“deviated from its planned course”
What am I missing here?
Did they deviate and fly out of approved airspace? Did they deviate and were unable to correct? Did they deviate and need to activate backup systems and/or emergency procedures? Almost all flights, space or otherwise deviates from a planned course. Just what’s the emergency here?
If deviating from a planned course or trajectory is cause for alarm, are we now requiring NASA to ditch the launch corridors and fly a predicted vector? How much off course or vector would cause concern? 2 miles? 20 ft? 2 inches?
We’ve gone to “off course” to “outside authorized airspace” to “major deviation”.
Seems there was a deviation from the flight plan. How large was the deviation? Was this deviation so large that the craft had to perform extraordinary maneuvers to make the landing site? Did the craft not have enough energy to make the primary or secondary landing sites? Was the craft outside authorized airspace?
From this reporting it sounds like they busted their authorized airspace reservation. Analysis is required to understand why (engineering or ops) with further analysis on whether upon realizing this, was the reaction according to their FAA approved procedures.
Congress defined FAA as civil space authority in US…it also waived numerous safety restrictions…so like flying in an experimental, your passengers should be briefed that this isn’t airline level of safety, though unlike experimental, they can charge for the flight. At some undefined point the “experiment” will end…perhaps ( though hopefully not) at the site of a smoking hole occupied by the mortal remains of some very wealthy folks…at which point the lawyers will litigate it to oblivion.
To paraphrase a WWII German General: “Space flight is chaos and the reason American companies are so good at it is they practice it on a daily basis.” No flight system is perfect nor will one ever be created. It is foolish to confuse perfection with reliability and while we can achieve the latter, the former is impossible to attain. Jet powered planes have been reliably flying for 6+ decades and yet engines still come apart mid-flight. Do I concern myself with this chance happening? Of course not and I suspect no one, myself included, gives it a 2nd thought when boarding an airliner.
I don’t recall the FAA getting involved with Apollo or the STS (Shuttle) and the problems with those programs are well documented. “Risk, Gentlemen, is our business*”. It’s the reason private enterprise got into the space race. That, and to make a buck.
- Captain James T. Kirk
That’s been the problem all along. Congress should have never put space flight under FAA jurisdiction. All the FAA will do is bury space flight in red tape and worthless rules.
Not lately but when I do I can keep it all on course.
I also recommend following the link Russ included to the “account in the New Yorker”. It tells a story of a management that are “innocents in the woods”, that fire its two strongest voices for flight test experience and safety. If that’s the real underlying cause, then good on the FAA for being strict.
Apollo and the STS were governmental programs, and the FAA didn’t have authority to intervene when they had problems. In any case, all the expertise was within NASA (and its contractors), so the FAA wouldn’t have brought anything to the table.
I’ll say I’m not too fired up about having the FAA given authority for civilian space operations. They don’t have the expertise. Hopefully, they’ve hired some industry professionals (and to forestall the obvious question, yes, I did consider applying after I’d retired :-), but the problem is that they’re trying to fit things into the FAA “template,” and space operations are TOTALLY different from aircraft operations. It’s like the US Space Force; all the people in charge are aircraft pilots thus they’re only reference is Tooey Spaatz in 1943. “It’s another kind of flying, all together.”
The regulatory problem with Virgin Galactic/Blue Origin/et al is not that they’re developing experimental spacecraft, it’s that they intend to provide commercial passenger-carrying service. That opens the gates to government regulation, because somewhere, someone is going to claim that the public must be protected.
I don’t think it’s that major of an issue, just because of the high risk factor involved in space operations and the litigious propensities in the US. First shipful of billionaires (or even millionaires) that fries, the company in question will be buried in lawsuits. It’s a self-correcting problem.
Branson and Bezos should have set up their operations outside the US… South America would have been a good choice. Set it up as a foreign corporation, keep it out of the US courts, and spread the wealth around the government of whatever country they end up in to ensure positive treatment.
Remember when we used to make fun of countries that were so mired in government red tape and interference that they couldn’t get anything accomplished, or be competitive in business?
Yes–WE NOW ARE THOSE COUNTRIES!
Uh oh. Someone on the VG flight probably wasn’t vaccinated and the FAA found out.
You speak truth, Mr. Hanson.