This story originally appeared on PC Mag
Virgin Galactic aborted its first attempt at human spaceflight after the VSS Unity SpaceShipTwo s onboard computer lost connection.
Less than an hour after Saturday s launch from Spaceport America in New Mexico, Unity was released from the WhiteKnightTwo carrier and lit its engine. But one second into firing, the mission was aborted; pilots CJ Sturckow and David Mackay successfully returned the ship to Earth unscathed.
The whole ordeal was captured on a two-hour livestream by NASASpaceflight.com: [Saturday s] flight landed beautifully, with pilots, planes, and spaceship safe, secure, and in excellent shape the foundation of every successful mission. Our flight … did not reach space as we had been planning, Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a tweeted statement.
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The Spacecraft That Didn’t Go Anywhere: Virgin Galactic’s Aborted Spacecraft Test Explained
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Virgin Galactic’s latest spacecraft test ended abruptly over the weekend, because of technical issues. The space tourism company owned by Richard Branson wanted to do a fist powered test flight of its spacecraft, in New Mexico. But the test flight of the SpaceShipTwo Unity, or VSS Unity, had to be aborted and the craft glided back to earth before it could reach space, because of what the company says is an issue with the rocket motor’s ignition system.
It turns out that once the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Unity was released from the mothership, the onboard computers that detected and monitored the rocket motor on the craft lost connection. This triggered what is a fail-safe scenario that didn’t allow the ignition of the rocket motor to continue as it otherwise would have. The pilots then headed back to Spaceport America, the launch site, and landed safely. There w
Virgin Galactic test flight fails to reach space after failsafe landing triggered
Virgin Galactic attempted a test flight of its SpaceShipTwo Unity spaceplane on Saturday, but the flight was cut short after the spacecraft detached from its carrier aircraft. A failsafe prevented Unity’s rocket engines from firing up because the computer that monitors the rockets somehow lost their connection to the rocket engines themselves, Virgin Galactic revealed on Monday.
The failsafe cut-off meant that both SpaceShipTwo Unity and the carrier aircraft, along with all pilots on board, returned safely to Earth for a successful landing without incident. But the test flight was meant to go all the way to space, and this would’ve been a key stage-setting event to clear the way for flying the first actual paying passengers from the company’s New Mexico spaceport.
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Heading into a weekend with a highly anticipated test flight on its schedule, space tourism company