SpaceShipTwo Investigation Focuses on Feathering System

摘要

Investigators with the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) have found that a "feathering" system on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane appeared to prematurely deploy on its fatal Oct. 31 test flight and may have caused the vehicle to break apart. At a press conference at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California late Nov. 2, NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said telemetry and video from SpaceShipTwo indicated that the vehicle's co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, had unlocked the vehicle's feathering mechanism about nine seconds into the vehicle's powered flight, earlier than required under normal procedures. SpaceShipTwo is designed to raise, or "feather," its twin tail booms during re-entry, reconfiguring the vehicle for increased drag and stability. The feathering system is not designed to be engaged during powered flight, and the tail booms are lowered back to their normal position after re-entry to allow the vehicle to glide to a runway landing. The feathering system had been successfully tested on a number of powered and unpowered test flights dating back to May 2011.