Virgin Galactic’s core spaceship, SpaceShipTwo, is now grounded pending investigations (Reuters).

Why? Well, it seems to stem from “The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight,” according to a detailed New Yorker report published this week on the famous/infamous Virgin Galactic flight earlier this year that took billionaire Richard Branson to the edge of space, beating out Jeff Bezos.

It’s a scathing report because it seems … unsafe, at best? In short, it’s reported that the flight didn’t go to plan, which isn’t wildly unexpected given the various firsts being achieved. 

• But the VSS Unity veered off course during its ascent, invoking warnings. 
• It flew in unsanctioned airspace, and the spaceplane failed to reach its intended trajectory.
• That risked a hazardous descent and landing, with a red warning light: Virgin Galactic pilots Dave Mackay and Mike Masucci were aware of the problem.

Details:

• First, a yellow light: a “warning to the pilots that their flight path was too shallow and the nose of the ship was insufficiently vertical,” writes author of the piece, Nicholas Schmidle. “If they didn’t fix it, they risked a perilous emergency landing in the desert on their descent.”
• Then the red light: an “entry glide cone warning,” described as a “big deal.”
• During a meeting in 2015, the report says Mike Masucci himself said this red warning light “should scare the crap out of you.”
• “According to multiple sources in the company, the safest way to respond to the warning would have been to abort. (A Virgin Galactic spokesperson disputed this contention.)
• “Aborting at that moment, however, would have dashed Branson’s hopes of beating his rival Bezos, whose flight was scheduled for later in the month, into space. Mackay and Masucci did not abort. Whether or not their decision was motivated by programmatic pressures and the hopes of their billionaire bankroller sitting in the back remains unclear.
• “An F.A.A. spokesperson confirmed that Virgin Galactic “deviated from its Air Traffic Control clearance” and that an “investigation is ongoing.”

The New Yorker report further questions the safety culture of the company, which Virgin Galatic denied in various statements.

• Anyway, tickets are $450,000!