The cause of the accident SpaceShipTwo could be an error in the wing positioning system

A few days ago, as we know, two spacecraft crashed at once. One accident with the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo resulted in the death of a pilot. Now a thorough analysis of what happened is being carried out, which may take a lot of time (months, according to Richard Branson).

However, a problem has already been identified, which may well be the cause (or one of the reasons) for the accident. The fact is that the wings of SpaceShipTwo folded into a vertical position before the ship itself reached the desired speed.

As it is known, SpaceShipTwo has two pilots, and critical commands are executed by the spacecraft systems only after one pilot gives such a command, and the second one is confirmed. So, one of the pilots gave the command to “fold the wings”, and the ship carried out the command without confirmation by its co-pilot. As a result, the wings of the ship were folded even before the aircraft reached the desired speed.
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Many media also reported that during this launch a new fuel was tested. There were also reports that the cause of the incident was a malfunction with the ship. However, the engine, fuel tank and oxidizer tank, after analyzing the debris found, showed no signs of damage, including traces of burning.



Via theverge