U.S. GROUNDS VIRGIN GALACTIC SPACESHIP

Washington, Sept 3: The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on Thursday said it was grounding space flights by Virgin Galactic while it investigates why the company’s July mission carrying Richard Branson deviated from its planned trajectory.

The move represents a blow to the space tourism firm as it prepares to carry paying customers following its first fully-crewed test flight.

“The FAA is overseeing the Virgin Galactic investigation of its July 11 SpaceShipTwo mishap that occurred over Spaceport America, New Mexico,” the agency said in a short statement.

“Virgin Galactic may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety,” it added.

The company responded with a statement saying: “We take this seriously and are currently addressing the causes of the issue and determining how to prevent this from occurring on future missions.” It added it was working closely with the FAA “to support a thorough review and timely resolution of this issue.”

The FAA’s decision came after a report by the New Yorker said the flight experienced cockpit warnings about its rocket-powered ascent that could have jeopardised the mission.

The article, by investigative journalist Nicholas Schmidle, said the pilots encountered first a yellow then a red light, indicating the spaceplane's climb was too shallow and the nose was insufficiently vertical.

Without corrective action, the vessel would not have had enough energy to glide back to its runway.

“According to multiple sources in the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort,” Schmidle wrote — though Virgin has disputed this. Aborting would have dashed flamboyant billionaire Branson’s hopes of beating rival Jeff Bezos, whose own flight to space was scheduled a few days later. —