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

A few days ago, as you know, two spacecraft crashed at once. One accident, with Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, caused the death of a pilot. A thorough analysis of what has happened is underway, which may take a very long time (months, according to Richard Branson).

Nevertheless, a problem has already been identified that could very well be the cause (or one of the causes) of the accident. The fact is that the wings of SpaceShipTwo folded into a vertical position before the ship itself reached the desired speed.

As you know, SpaceShipTwo has two pilots, and critical commands are executed by ship systems only after one pilot gives such a command and confirms the second. So, one of the pilots gave the command to “fold wings”, and the ship completed the command without being confirmed by the co-pilot. As a result, the wings of the ship were folded even before the aircraft reached the desired speed.

Many media also reported that new fuel was tested during this launch. 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 signs of burning.



Via theverge