Sub-Orbital Space is Hard: Virgin Galactic

 

The long-time mantra of the space development community has been, “Build low-cost space access, and they will come.”  The Space Shuttle was an attempt to build it.  After the Challenger explosion made the failure of that effort manifest to everybody, the US Government made several abortive attempts to do it right.  These attempts all followed the same pattern.  The government, usually DoD but sometimes NASA, would spend tens or hundreds of millions on studies and preliminary designs.  When the contractor said, “Ok, we’re ready!  Give us $3 or $4 billion and we’ll build it!” the government would say, in effect, “Just kidding!” and end the program.

If I sound peeved, it’s because I was associated with a couple of those programs: DC-X, a flying prototype of a proposed single stage to orbit (SSTO) rocket, and the National Aerospace Plane, a proposed SSTO air breather.  Thus, it was with considerable interest that I followed the nascent, privately funded “New Space” effort.  After an initial “thousand flowers blooming” phase in the ‘90s, the movement has largely winnowed down to the companies backed by the deepest pockets: SpaceX (Musk), Blue Origin (Bezos), and Virgin Galactic (Branson).  Books profiling these companies are starting to be published.  Nicholas Schmidle of The New Yorker has weighed in with Test Gods: Virgin Galactic and the Making of a Modern Astronaut, about the long, twisting road to Richard Branson’s short hop into space last month.

The astronaut in the book’s subtitle is Mark Stucky, a Marine aviator who just missed two NASA astronaut selections.  After that, he decided going with a commercial company was his best chance of getting to space.  He joined up with Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites, and then Branson’s Virgin Galactic, which plans to fly tourists for short sub-orbital hops on its SpaceShipTwo.  He piloted SpaceShipTwo on its first flight above 50 miles, thereby earning commercial astronaut’s wings from the FAA.

Schmidle was granted exclusive inside access at Virgin Galactic for four years.  He grew so close to Stucky that he almost became a member of the family.  Schmidle used this access to skillfully weave an inside tale of the company and a handful of characters; mostly the test pilots.  He also reflects on his sometimes difficult relationship with his own father, also a Marine aviator, who retired as a 3-star.  While this makes for good reading, it also means that Schmidle really isn’t capable of giving us an objective view.

This lack of objectivity and lack of engineering expertise caused Schmidle to miss a key point: Virgin Galactic has a sick safety culture.  Based on my reading of the book, the problem comes both from the top and Virgin Galactic’s heritage. 

Richard Branson is an appealing personality and a brilliant huckster, but brings zero technical expertise to the table.  He kept overpromising, never seeming to realize that if the CEO sets an unrealistically short schedule, it puts pressure on his workers to cut corners to meet that schedule.  Branson did that repeatedly. 

In addition, the company Branson and Rutan created to build the craft, The Spaceship Company, inherited the “one-off prototype” culture of Scaled Composites, which builds experimental airplanes that will be flown only by skilled test pilots for a short time.  This is far different than the culture required for series production of a safe vehicle for non-professional passengers.  The result has been two fatal accidents and some near-misses.  Schmidle expertly profiles the people and chronicles the events, but never connects the dots.

Test Gods is a well written, engaging, and engrossing read.  It tells the human side of the story very well.  But read closely, as there is much between the lines.

 

Henry Holt, 2021

Hardcover, 352 pp