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The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

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Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#121

Post by mmaunder »

bryananderson wrote: post #36

I recommend Schmidle’s recent book “Test Gods” if you are interested in Virgin Galactic and test piloting. Schmidle is not an engineer and I would have enjoyed a deeper dive into Virgin Galactic’s design choices, but it is a great book about (among other things) the tensions that emerge when a complex technical project is overseen from a distance by utterly nontechnical, PR-oriented upper management. The company’s co…

Agreed about the chickens and it will have a broader negative impact than the $SPCE stock price.

Fundamentally I think it’s a culture problem. Collaborative engineering that identifies problems, views them as opportunities, doesn’t finger-point, and works each problem. Versus a sales and marketing organization with hard deadlines and a 100% focus on perception and revenue targets.

We don’t need an Apollo 1 in the private space industry. But if it happens, there will be a hard reset in terms of regulatory oversight and safety protocols which will cost us several years. Perhaps it’s needed.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#122

Post by beerandt »

Aeolun wrote: post #95
beerandt wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't fire him for the emails, they fired him for publicly bad mouthing the company. There were ~2 years in between.

If internally bad-mouthing the company doesn’t work, what are you left with?

It's not that he should or shouldn't have, it's that once you make that decision, certain consequences become likely.

I place it more on the author trying to paint a victim narrative, given the guys board resignation (he knew his fate), and the fact that the author directly benefitted from the decision that got him fired.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#123

Post by CharlesW »

mabbo wrote: post #67

This highlights why having automated pilots in spaceships is so critical. Software can be tested more thoroughly than humans, and cannot override safety protocols. If the rules say to abort, the software aborts. Humans get to say "I think we'll be fine", and put lives on the line.

> If the rules say to abort, the software aborts. Humans get to say "I think we'll be fine", and put lives on the line.

But logic errors and bugs in "thoroughly-tested" (subjective, determined by humans/corporations) software-controlled systems kills too. Interesting thought experiment: How many humans will die in 2031, across all industries, because of bad software?

https://www.bugsnag.com/blog/bug-day-race-condition-therac-2...

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#124

Post by gwern »

jonplackett wrote: post #111

> And now they were accelerating to Mach 3, with a red light glowing in the cockpit. Fortunately for Branson and the three other crew members in the back, the pilots got the ship into space and landed safely It seems like we’re missing the crucial step of how it all turned out OK. 2 paragraphs earlier they’re saying how red lights ought to ‘scare the shit out of you’ and ‘it’s too late once it turns red’.

Yes, the red light is supposed to mean that they failed to boost enough to be able to glide back to their target runway. But... they did anyway? Apparently? Something is missing from this account.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#125

Post by theelous3 »

gwern wrote: post #124
jonplackett wrote: post #111

> And now they were accelerating to Mach 3, with a red light glowing in the cockpit. Fortunately for Branson and the three other crew members in the back, the pilots got the ship into space and landed safely It seems like we’re missing the crucial step of how it all turned out OK. 2 paragraphs earlier they’re saying how red lights ought to ‘scare the shit out of you’ and ‘it’s too late once it turns red’.

Yes, the red light is supposed to mean that they failed to boost enough to be able to glide back to their target runway. But... they did anyway? Apparently? Something is missing from this account.

Typically warning lights appear when the thing they warn about is impending, not that you've past the point.

Otherwise they would be useless, except for existential mockery.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#126

Post by smegger001 »

IgorPartola wrote: post #115
dboreham wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also those shows where they view three houses, then buy one, all in the same week : in reality the producers find someone who has just bought a house, then they make the show using that house and two other random houses, and lo and behold they find a house they like!

You mean the people who are like “I am an underwater basket weaver and my husband is a turtle dance instructor! Our budget is $800,000!”

I hate those shows with a burning passion my wife cant get enough of them.

I have however gotten her to watch "This Old House" which actually shows real remodeling and home repair as opposed to sledgehammer porn fallowed by contrived drama between the hosts finishing with a walk through of a staged house where they advertise tacky furniture and overpriced appliances.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#127

Post by m3at »

Interesting article regarding Virgin Galactic safety practices. I'm not sure about this comparison though?

> Branson’s Virgin Galactic, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin [...] profits depend on making frequent and safe human spaceflight a reality.

For SpaceX, their profits are largely driven by unmanned launches. Maybe the point was just to mention a better known company to the general public?

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#128

Post by JackFr »

mc32 wrote: post #11
bigtones wrote: post #2

Brilliant well written article. Not without bias, but you can see through the words on the page and into the immense pressure that team at Virgin Galactic must have been under to get their boss into space and to beat Bezos, all for the inflated ego of one man. Branson did put his life on the line to achieve that accolade though, which was a gutsy move.

There are other flaws too. Like pretending to bike to the spaceport on the day of, but it was actually filmed the week before and when called out, they said, oops, you're right, sorry! It's like when Guy Fiery in his hot rod. He pretends he rolls up to the place in his 70s hot rod, but actually it's just rolled out of the truck that lugs it around from location to location and he opens the door, sits, gets filmed get…

In fairness I don’t think anyone really thinks that Guy Fieri drives from city to city, and the car is a little bit if flair, not really germane to the content of the show.

Re: The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight

#129

Post by monocasa »

IggleSniggle wrote: post #59
bryananderson wrote: post #36

I recommend Schmidle’s recent book “Test Gods” if you are interested in Virgin Galactic and test piloting. Schmidle is not an engineer and I would have enjoyed a deeper dive into Virgin Galactic’s design choices, but it is a great book about (among other things) the tensions that emerge when a complex technical project is overseen from a distance by utterly nontechnical, PR-oriented upper management. The company’s co…

> SpaceShipTwo is an inherently risky experimental test craft—with death always waiting on each side of a narrow envelope—and it always will be. Management is willfully ignorant of this. This comment reminded me of another story from a previous aerospace era (blimp cruise liners aka airships), the summary of which is: > A British Lord wanted to build the best airship in the world – and so he had two rival design team…

Hmm, that certainly colors a rumor I've heard about Apple. That they'll have two or three teams compete on a new product... but they won't tell the teams that they have competition until final demo day.
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