By Miriam Kramer From Mashable

The October 2014 crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo that killed the co-pilot and seriously injured the pilot was likely the result of human error and a failure of the private spaceflight company to protect against this kind of catastrophic issue through adequate flight training, according to findings from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

The first SpaceShipTwo space plane — which was built and tested for Virgin Galactic by the company Scaled Composites — broke apart during a test flight seconds on Oct. 31, 2014. The structural failure occurred after the craft’s rocket motor kicked on after it was released from its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo in the skies above the Mojave Desert.

New results from the NTSB investigation, which were revealed at a hearing in Washington on Tuesday, confirm that co-pilot Mike Alsbury unlocked SpaceShipTwo’s “feather feature” — designed to bring the craft in for a smooth landing — earlier than planned during the vehicle’s fourth powered test flight, causing the space plane to break up in the air above California.

During the powered test flight, Alsbury — a Scaled Composites test pilot — was exposed to high vibrations and G-loads that he had not experienced since April of 2013, the NTSB said. This probably contributed to his decision to unlock the feather system, which rotates the craft’s wings, at an inopportune time, NTSB managing director Tom Zoeller said during a public hearing Tuesday.

“The co-pilot was experiencing a high workload as a result of recalling tasks from memory while performing under time pressure,” Zoeller added.

Alsbury died when the craft broke apart. The pilot, Peter Siebold, ejected and survived the crash with significant injuries.

Scaled Composites, as a company, also played a part in the accident, the NTSB found. The rocket-manufacturer did not take steps to mitigate the risk that the feathering system could deploy early and did not stress the importance of keeping the feather in the locked position until at least a speed of Mach 1.4.

Alsbury released the feathering system at about Mach 0.92, while the craft was still accelerating toward the speed of sound.

Test pilots working with SpaceShipTwo told NTSB investigators that they did know the importance of keeping the feathering system locked until at least Mach 1.4; however, it was not necessarily part of formal training.

The NTSB did not find any structural problems with the aircraft that could have explained the accident. “The recovered vehicle components showed no evidence of any structural, system or rocket motor failures before the in-flight breakup,” the agency’s findings state.

Last year’s crash marked the first major accident for SpaceShipTwo during a test flight, pushing back Virgin Galactic’s plans to start flying paying, civilian customers to suborbital space sometime this year. Other companies, like XCOR Aerospace and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, are also hoping to fly people to the edge of space and back, but neither of those companies has started flying crewed test flights.

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson issued a video statement in response to the NTSB’s findings.

“We are thankful to the NTSB for conducting and completing a thorough investigation –- as well as for the clarity of their findings and recommendations, all of which will help make the fledgling commercial space industry safer and better,” Branson said.

As planned prior to the accident, Scaled Composites is no longer involved in the testing of Virgin Galactic’s second SpaceShipTwo, which is currently being built by Virgin’s The SpaceShip Company. Virgin Galactic has recruited its own team of pilots for its future test and operational flights.

Since the time of the accident, Virgin Galactic has also instituted a fix for the feathering mishap to prevent an early deployment of the system in the future, NTSB confirmed. Virgin Galactic also now includes a section about the dangers of unlocking the feather mechanism early in the pilot handbook, and includes it in pilot training.

The NTSB also made suggestions to the Federal Aviation Administration and the Commercial Spaceflight Federation to help make private spaceflight safer in the future.

At the moment, about 700 people have paid up to $250,000 to reserve a seat on SpaceShipTwo. The space plane is designed to carry six people plus two about 62 miles above Earth’s surface on a parabolic flight. Passengers should experience weightlessness and see Earth against the blackness of space.

Virgin Galactic is in the process of building another SpaceShipTwo, but the company hasn’t given a firm date for when test flights (and eventually passenger flights) may begin.

IMAGES:
Wreckage from the SpaceShipTwo accident.IMAGE: RINGO H.W. CHIU, FILE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
SpaceShipTwo separated from its carrier aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo (left), then exploded in the air (right). IMAGE: KENNETH BROWN/ASSOCIATED PRESS

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