NEW YORK, September 2. / TASS /. Virgin Galactic's Unity-22 spacecraft deviated from its intended course during a suborbital flight on July 11, threatening it with an emergency landing. As reported by The New Yorker on Wednesday, the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is investigating the incident.
Unity-22, on board of which was the founder of Virgin Galactic billionaire Richard Branson, took to the air, being attached to the bottom of the carrier aircraft. Upon reaching an altitude of about 15 km, the spacecraft separated from it and already with the help of its own engines rose to an altitude of about 86 km, which the US Air Force believes is higher than the upper layers of the Earth's atmosphere, but which is below the Karman line (more than 100 km, space flight according to the classification of the International Aviation federation). After spending several minutes there, the spacecraft in glider mode began to descend and landed on the runway of the spaceport America (New Mexico).
As noted by The New Yorker, during the descent, Unity-22 deviated from the trajectory that lay in the airspace allocated by the FAA for this flight. The incident could have occurred due to the fact that during takeoff, the spacecraft's engines worked for several seconds longer than planned. According to the magazine, a red light came on in the cockpit of the pilots flying the Unity-22, warning of a deviation from the set course, but the flight was not interrupted. This threatened an emergency landing of the spacecraft outside the runway, and also became a violation of FAA requirements.
The American regulator confirmed to the publication that the Virgin Galactic spacecraft has deviated from the set course, in connection with which the FAA is “investigating.” In turn, representatives of the company admit that Unity-22 for more than one and a half minutes did not descend along a given trajectory. At the same time, according to Virgin Galactic, the ship's deviation from the course was provoked by winds in the upper atmosphere. The test pilots acted according to the instructions, and such incidents are being worked out in preparation for the flights, the company stressed.
Virgin Galactic is one of the firms that intend to carry out regular tourist flights into space. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Elon Musk's SpaceX have the same plans.
