FAA blocks Virgin Galactic flights for verification

In the wake of reports that the Virgin Galactic spacecraft carrying billionaire Richard Branson and others deviated from its approved flight route during a trip in July, the U.S. FAA opened a probe and blocked all further flights until upon completion of the investigation. the FAA, Federal Aviation Administration is the US federal body that deals with civil aviation and its regulation.

"Virgin Galactic may not fly the SpaceShipTwo vehicle back until the FAA approves the final accident investigation report or determines that the incident related issues do not affect public safety," the FAA said in a statement. by email.

The New Yorker first reported the probe, saying the flight encountered strong winds and flew out of its designated airspace for 1 minute and 41 seconds.

Virgin responded to the New Yorker saying the report was "misleading" and that the flight was "safe and successful", adding that the ship was not "traveling over built-up areas or causing danger to the public."

“As we move towards commercial service, we are confident that we have the right safety culture, policies and processes in place to build and operate a safe and long-term successful business,” the company said in a statement sent Wednesday.

SPCE shares plummeted on announcement …

Virgin Galactic was planning its next suborbital spaceflight later this month or early October.

---

---

The article FAA blocks Virgin Galactic flights for verification comes from ScenariEconomici.it .

---

This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-faa-blocca-i-voli-virgin-galactic-per-verifiche/ on Thu, 02 Sep 2021 20:03:03 +0000.