The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has completed its investigation into the yaw incident of billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic ship Unity 22 during a suborbital flight. The regulator allowed the company to resume using spacecraft. During the flight on July 11, Unity 22, on board which was Mr. Branson and five other people, for 1 minute. and 41 sec. flew outside the planned trajectory. The FAA then banned the resumption of flights of this type of spacecraft pending an investigation into the incident.
“The FAA today completed its investigation into an abnormal situation that occurred during the flight of Virgin Galactic's Unity 22 ship on July 11,” the regulator's website said in a statement.
The agency concluded that the spacecraft did deviate from course during the flight, and Virgin Galactic did not properly inform the agency of the incident. Following the audit, the FAA and Virgin Galactic agreed to expand the protected airspace during future launches, as well as to take additional measures in terms of flight notification.
Virgin Galactic previously reported that the deflection was caused by the wind, the ship's pilots responded appropriately, and in general everything was proceeding normally. Virgin Galactic's new flight is scheduled for late September and early October.
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