Richard Branson’s space flights grounded after parts fall off Virgin Galactic craft

Richard Branson’s rocket planes have had their wings clipped after parts detached from the Unity spacecraft, grounding future Virgin Galactic flights.

The company said the part that fell off the January 26 flight was a pin attaching the rocket to its mother ship Eve — the aircraft that carries the space plane to the upper atmosphere.

The missing part was detected after a post-flight review, but it was not critical to safety of the crew.

“At no time did the detached alignment pin pose a safety impact to the vehicles or the crew on board,” Virgin said.

The flight out of New Mexico was the sixth commercial space flight, carrying passengers who had paid more than $500,000 for the experience.

On board were Austrian Franz Haider, Ukrainian Lina Borozdina, and American tourists Robie Vaughn, of Texas, and Neil Kornswiet, of California.

The part detached from Virgin Galactic's mothership Eve, which carries the Unity 22 to near space. Photo / AP

The space plane Unity carried these space tourists aboard Galactic 6 to an altitude of 88.7km, just below the defining Karman line of space.

Neither the guests nor the pilots were aware of the missing alignment pin until well after the flight. The FAA was notified on January 31, after the issue had been detected, and Virgin said it was “conducting a review” with the US civil aviation agency.

The FAA said its investigation would need to be completed before any further flights.

“A return to flight is based on the FAA determining that any system, process, or procedure related to the mishap does not affect public safety,” the agency told CNN.

If Virgin Galactic deems it needs to modify the craft to fix this issue, flights may be further delayed by licensing, the FAA suggested.

The company hoped to provide a further update following the review and says it will confirm the new flight window for the upcoming Galactic 07 flight, which is planned after April.