A Virgin Galactic test flight Saturday ended prematurely as the spacecraft’s rocket motor failed to ignite and it then glided down safely to its landing site in southern New Mexico. Both the craft and the crew are “in great shape,” and there are backup motors on hand. Still, the company could only promise that it would make another attempt “soon.”
It’s too early to determine a cause for the failure at this stage.
This won’t necessarily lead to a large delay, but it’s still an unpleasant setback for Virgin. This test would have been the last before a new test phase where the company would have specialists sit in the cabin to help improve the experience for passengers — some of the last steps before commercial service begins. If there’s anything more than a small delay, Virgin can’t start taking paying customers for a while longer.
The test was also supposed to be the first crewed spaceflight ever to launch from New Mexico, and the first from Spaceport America. Like it or not, the history making will have to wait at least a little while longer.
“After being released from its mothership, the spaceship’s onboard computer that monitors the rocket motor lost connection,” CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement. “As designed, this triggered a fail-safe scenario that intentionally halted ignition of the rocket motor.”
The spaceship was crewed by two pilots. There was payload belonging to NASA onboard but no passengers.
It’s unclear how soon another window will open for Virgin Galactic’s next attempt at a powered flight to space. Once the company checks that box, the next phase of final testing for the Virgin Galactic team will involve company mission specialists and engineers being loaded into the spaceship’s passenger cabin for powered flights. They will evaluate all the hardware, camera settings and which angles will provide the best views.
Before Saturday, the company already had done two glide flights by the spaceship in New Mexico. This test would have marked the third time overall for Virgin Galactic to reach space, with the first time being from California in December 2018.
Virgin Galactic has yet to announce a firm date for its first commercial flight.
More than 600 customers from around the world have purchased tickets to be launched into the lower fringes of space where they can experience weightlessness and get a view of the Earth below.
