American Military News by Algernon DAmmassa - Las Cruces Sun-News September 04, 2021
Weeks ahead of its next mission, commercial spaceline company Virgin Galactic is pushing back against a new report in the New Yorker that its July 11 flight to space with founder Richard Branson on board went off-course, triggering an investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration.
In a new development Thursday, the FAA indicated that the space plane VSS Unity will remain grounded until its investigation is complete or the agency determines that the issue does not present a public hazard.
The New Yorker reported, based on interviews with unnamed Virgin Galactic officials, that during the Unity’s July flight pilots Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci were alerted to the plane’s deviation from its planned trajectory.
According to those interviews, a yellow caution light indicated less than one minute into the flight that the nose of the plane was “insufficiently vertical” and its flight path shallow.
This was purportedly followed by a red light indicating an “entry glide cone warning,” referring to its angle of descent, alerting pilots that the Unity was not within the airspace cleared by the FAA, and might have to make an emergency landing absent immediate corrective action or aborting the mission.
More:
https://americanmilitarynews.com/2021/09/faa-grounds-virgin-galactic-while-it-investigates-july-11-space-flight-with-richard-branson/
