Virgin Galactic craft explodes, then crashes - space tourism hits snag

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moonbogg

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,734
3,454
136
SoulWager said:
The vehicle feathers to increase drag for reentry, looks like that happened at the wrong point of flight. The mechanism was unlocked too early(human error?) and the feather mechanism activated without being commanded to(hardware or software issue?)

Still too early for the NTSB to say this caused LoV, but it did happen a couple seconds before they lost telemetry.

Engine and tanks were found with no evidence of an explosion.


Source(NTSB press conference): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjYVhGvUSNc
Click to expand...

Aren't ATOT people mostly brilliant software engineers? None of you happen to work for Virgin Galactic, do you?
 
Thebobo

Thebobo

Lifer
Jun 19, 2006
18,574
7,672
136
Branson is retired from Scaled composites which as I mentioned earlier was bought by Northrop Gunman.
 
Number1

Number1

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,881
549
126
Here is the best explanation so far as to what happened.

Disaster at the speed of sound: the tragedy of SpaceShipTwo’s final flight

"Seconds after firing its engine, Virgin Galactic’s spaceship was breaking through the sound barrier. As the craft made its ascent, the pilots were pinned against their seats, gasping for breath. G-forces crushed their eyes into the their heads, trapping the supply of blood and fading their vision from colour to black and white.

It was at this point, in the three disorientating seconds it took for the craft to climb from Mach 0.94 to Mach 1.2, that co-pilot Mike Alsbury made what many close to the event believe was the fatal mistake that led to the disintegration of SpaceShipTwo. The pilot, Peter Siebold, survived the 10-mile fall back to earth."
 
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moonbogg

moonbogg

Lifer
Jan 8, 2011
10,734
3,454
136
Number1 said:
Here is the best explanation so far as to what happened.

Disaster at the speed of sound: the tragedy of SpaceShipTwo’s final flight

"Seconds after firing its engine, Virgin Galactic’s spaceship was breaking through the sound barrier. As the craft made its ascent, the pilots were pinned against their seats, gasping for breath. G-forces crushed their eyes into the their heads, trapping the supply of blood and fading their vision from colour to black and white.

It was at this point, in the three disorientating seconds it took for the craft to climb from Mach 0.94 to Mach 1.2, that co-pilot Mike Alsbury made what many close to the event believe was the fatal mistake that led to the disintegration of SpaceShipTwo. The pilot, Peter Siebold, survived the 10-mile fall back to earth."
Click to expand...

Did they just blame it on the dead guy? Because if they just blamed it on the only dead guy, that dead guy better have been at fault. Hit the lever too early huh...oh man. Can't believe that isn't protected with sensors that prevent activation too early, especially when the consequences of a mistake are catastrophic like that...bad safety in the design. No protection from human error.
 
norseamd

norseamd

Lifer
Dec 13, 2013
13,990
180
106
moonbogg said:
Did they just blame it on the dead guy? Because if they just blamed it on the only dead guy, that dead guy better have been at fault. Hit the lever too early huh...oh man. Can't believe that isn't protected with sensors that prevent activation too early, especially when the consequences of a mistake are catastrophic like that...bad safety in the design. No protection from human error.
Click to expand...

No they did not. There are two levers and both of them are supposed to have been switched for the feathering to have been deployed. However Mike Alsbury seems to have used only one lever and somehow the feathering deployed anyways.
 
Number1

Number1

Diamond Member
Feb 24, 2006
7,881
549
126
moonbogg said:
Did they just blame it on the dead guy? Because if they just blamed it on the only dead guy, that dead guy better have been at fault. Hit the lever too early huh...oh man. Can't believe that isn't protected with sensors that prevent activation too early, especially when the consequences of a mistake are catastrophic like that...bad safety in the design. No protection from human error.
Click to expand...

It's easy to blame the pilot. You are right, pressing a button at the wrong time should not result in instant death. Piss poor design indeed and god knows what other things are wrong with this spaceship. I have a feeling the one under construction won't be flying for a very long time as the design will be scrutinised very closely. As it should be.
 
Paratus

Paratus

Lifer
Jun 4, 2004
17,728
16,030
146
When investigating any failure like this there is usually several reasons why the failure happened. We call that an "error chain". In general there are always multiple links in the error chain that if any one of them had been broken, the failure wouldn't have occurred.

Some examples:
  • hardware failures
  • software bugs (known or unknown)
  • Design Failure
  • procedural mistakes
  • insufficient training
  • user/pilot/crew error
  • Rushed
  • excessive schedule pressure
  • excessive budget pressure

Catastrophic hazards should have multiple inhibits to prevent the crew from being exposed to the hazard. While that's not always possible if media reports are accurate, the unlock and feather being seperate controls indicates two inhibits. One of which failed.

So while the pilot throwing the switch at the wrong time is the primary cause of the crash there are other links Virgin Galactic will have to address if they want a safe vehicle and mission.
 
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