FAA has imposed a temporary take-off ban for Virgin Galactic

It is a serious setback for the British billionaire Richard Branson: Due to a problem with the last test flight of his space company Virgin Galactic, the US aviation authority FAA has imposed a temporary take-off ban. The spacecraft of the type "Space Ship Two" should not take off until the FAA has not approved a "final breakdown investigation report" or determined that there is no danger to public safety, the agency said. It had previously become known that the spacecraft had deviated from the planned flight path on July 11 during a test flight with Branson on board, which received worldwide attention. According to a report by New Yorker magazine, an orange and then a red warning light came on during the flight. Accordingly, the plane's ascent angle was not steep enough. "According to several sources within the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort," the article said. The pilots did not abort the mission, but tried to make a correction at three times the speed of sound. Ultimately, the plane reached a height of 85 kilometers - according to the US definition, the limit to outer space - and later landed safely at Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America airport in the desert of the US state of New Mexico. The FAA has now confirmed that the plane had deviated from the approved course. "The FAA investigation is ongoing." No further starts are allowed until further notice. The company's share price has since plunged by five percent. Virgin Galactic rejected the representation in the article in the "New Yorker" as "misleading", but admitted that the spaceplane did not cover the planned route. Accordingly, the machine flew 1 minute and 43 seconds lower than planned. However, it was never located above an inhabited area and was not a "danger to the public". When high-altitude winds changed the trajectory of Space Ship Two, "the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure that it stayed within the parameters of the mission," the company said. "Our pilots responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions, just as they trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures."