No explosion in spacecraft crash: BransonAFP
Updated November 4, 2014, 1:35 am
Richard Branson, the British billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic, has hit out against "self-proclaimed experts" asserting an explosion was behind the crash of the company's spacecraft last week.
Evidence showed there was "no explosion" behind the deadly crash last Friday of SpaceShipTwo, he told Sky News television.
"I've never seen such irresponsible innuendo and damaging innuendo," the tycoon said.
Branson also vowed to "push on" with Virgin's passenger travel space program once the reasons behind the accident, in which one test pilot died, had been worked out and corrected.
Branson stressed that the US National Transportation Safety Board investigating the crash had found that the spacecraft's fuel tanks and engine found in the Mojave Desert in California were not broken apart.
"The fuel tanks and the engine were intact, showing there was no explosion, despite a lot of self-proclaimed experts saying that was the cause," he said.
Branson said sensationalist press reports about the crash had been "incredibly hurtful" adding that some of the journalists "should hang their heads in shame".
The crash of SpaceShipTwo is a major setback to Branson's ambition to start ferrying wealthy customers to the edge of space, charging $US250,000 ($A299,985) per ticket.
But the serial entrepreneur made clear he was unbowed in his ambition.
"We must push on," he said.
"I'm absolutely convinced that Virgin Galactic has a great future once the NTSB has made clear exactly what happened".
The investigation into the crash is ongoing and is not expected to conclude for another year.
However a rocket science safety expert on Sunday told AFP that Virgin Galactic had ignored multiple warnings about the spacecraft's motor and the fuel used since a 2007 incident in which three engineers were killed testing a rocket on the ground.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/25416664/spaceships-device-deployed-prematurely/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Virgin spaceship's descent system deployed early7:55 AM Tuesday Nov 4, 2014
LOS ANGELES (AP) An experimental rocket ship broke apart in flight over California's Mojave Desert after a device to slow the space plane's descent deployed too soon, federal investigators said.
The cause of Friday's crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has not been determined, but investigators found the "feathering" system which rotates the twin tail "feathers" to create drag was activated before the craft reached the appropriate speed, National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said.
The system requires a two-step process to deploy. The co-pilot unlocked the system, but Hart said the second step occurred "without being commanded."
"What we know is that after it was unlocked, the feathers moved into the deploy position, and two seconds later, we saw disintegration," Hart said.
The finding moves away from initial speculation that an explosion brought down the craft.
The investigation is months from being completed, and officials are looking at factors that include pilot error, mechanical failure, design problems and whether pressure existed to continue testing, Hart said.
"We are not edging toward anything. We're not ruling anything out," he said. "We are looking at all these issues to determine the root cause of this accident."
The co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, 39, was killed in the crash. Pilot Peter Siebold, 43, parachuted to the ground and is hospitalized with injuries.
Investigators have not interviewed Siebold because of his condition, Hart said.
Virgin Galactic owned by billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi plans to fly up to six passengers at a time more than 62 miles (100 kilometers) above Earth, where they can experience weightlessness. The company sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000.
Branson told Sky News on Monday that the company will move forward despite the crash. He said there would be a "whole massive series of test flights" before any trips are made.
He still plans to be on the maiden voyage, with his family.
"We need to be absolutely certain our spaceship has been thoroughly tested and that it will be and once it's thoroughly tested, and we can go to space, we will go to space," Branson said.
"We must push on. There are incredible things that can happen through mankind being able to explore space properly," he said.
SpaceShipTwo tore apart Friday about 11 seconds after it detached from the underside of its jet-powered mother ship and fired its rocket engine for the test flight. Initial speculation was that an explosion occurred, but the fuel and oxidizer tanks and rocket engine showed no sign of being burned or breached, the NTSB said.
The feathering system is a feature unique to the craft to help it slow as it re-enters the atmosphere. After being unlocked, a lever must be pulled to rotate the twin feathers toward a nearly vertical position to act as a brake. After decelerating, the pilots reconfigure the feathers to their normal position so the craft can glide to Earth.
A review of footage from a camera mounted to the ceiling of the spaceship's cockpit showed the co-pilot moving the feathering lever to the unlock position, Hart said.
The feathers activated at Mach 1.0, the speed of sound, or 760 mph (1,220 kph), Hart said. They should not have deployed until the craft had reached a speed of at least Mach 1.4, or more than 1,000 mph (1,610 kph).
Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides issued a statement Sunday to tamp down on conjecture about the cause of the crash.
"Now is the time to focus on all those affected by this tragic accident and to work with the experts at the NTSB, to get to the bottom of what happened on that tragic day, and to learn from it so that we can move forward safely with this important mission," he said.
SpaceShipTwo has been under development for years and has seen setbacks. In 2007, an explosion killed three people and critically injured three others during a ground test in the development of a rocket engine.
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Associated Press Writer Gregory Katz in London contributed to this report.
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