FAA Investigate Deviation Of Virgin Galactic Rocket Path While Flying Carrying Richard Branson

JAKARTA – Richard Branson's July 11 flight to the edge of outer space is being investigated by the Federal Aviation Administration for deviating from designated airspace mid-flight. The FAA said on Wednesday September 1 according to a report from The New Yorker.

Two mission pilots were alerted to a mid-flight yellow and red light warning that, according to sources at The New Yorker, should have prompted them to abort the mission. But the flight continued and finally landed safely.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo spacecraft launched from its carrier on July 11 carrying company founder Branson and three company employees aboard the New Mexico spaceport, Spaceport America.

The rocketship soared 53.5 miles, then glided on the edge of space for several minutes weightless before gliding freely back to the runway using the rocket's momentum from its ascent.

Branson and company hailed the mission as a success shortly after, while company president Mike Moses told reporters "the ship looked perfect" upon landing.

However, as the spacecraft accelerated to peak altitude, two pilots, Dave Mackay and Michael Masucci, saw a cockpit warning indicating that the ship was not flying as steeply as it should have been.

Such warnings “should frighten you,” Masucci was quoted by The New Yorker as saying in a 2015 meeting with pilots of other companies. That gave the pilot two options, according to company procedure: “apply corrective action immediately, or cancel the rocket motor,” reports the magazine.

Triggering the cancellation and returning Branson and his crew to land before reaching space would be the safest option at that point. This was stated by several sources to Nicholas Schmidle, the author of the article who also published a full book on the history of Virgin Galactic earlier this year.

The July flight fulfills Branson's long-standing goal of traveling into space. Branson. He was originally scheduled to fly on his next mission. But he quickly moved his flight schedule forward after Jeff Bezos announced that the Amazon Inc owner would fly on a space company Blue Origin's rocket in July.

Virgin Galactic said safety was its top priority and Branson denied that his rivalry with Bezos wanting to be the first to go on a trip to space played a part in his decision to launch sooner than planned.

It's unclear what corrective action Mackay and Masucci took mid-flight to rule out cancellations when a red light flashed during Branson's flight. It's also unclear if their decision to continue was driven by pressure to get Branson into space ahead of his rivals.

"During the July 11, 2021 flight, the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicle deviated from Air Traffic Control clearance on its return to Spaceport America," an FAA spokesman said in a statement. "The FAA's investigation is ongoing."

Flying off course isn't Virgin Galactic's first challenge with danger. In 2014, the company experienced a mid-flight disaster during a test flight that killed one pilot and injured another.

After that, Branson vowed to fly on board the ship himself before flying off paying customers, as a sign of confidence in the safety of the vehicle. On another test flight in 2018, with Mackay and Masucci as pilots, SpaceShipTwo also veered out of control, spun and crashed in mid-air before the pilots finally regained stability and landed safely, Schmidle reported.

The cause was later discovered to be a manufacturing defect that took months to fix. After the plane flew again in 2019, engineers discovered significant damage to key parts of the plane, with glue-like material tearing and exposing large gaps, Schmidle wrote in his book.

Schmidle's story at the New Yorker also reveals that Virgin Galactic's former test pilot and director of flight tests, Mark Stucky, was fired eight days after Branson's flight following disclosures from Schmidle's book.

Stucky previously wrote on LinkedIn that he had not left the company on his own terms, but the reasons for his departure were unclear. It marked the second layoff of a senior safety-related employee for the company.

Previously, Todd Ericson, a retired Air Force Colonel and former VP of safety and testing of Virgin Galactic, resigned from the company shortly after the 2019 test flight. He was also reportedly frustrated with Virgin Galactic because of its safety culture, according to Schmidle.

Virgin Galactic's next crewed mission, which will also be the first revenue-generating flight, is scheduled for late next month carrying three members of the Italian Air Force. But it's unclear how much of the ongoing FAA investigation will change that flight schedule to a later date.