#Virgin Galactic shares surge after FAA clears it for launch

Shares of Virgin Galactic surged almost ten percent after the Federal Aviation Administration said it has closed its investigation into a “mishap” on the company’s July 11 flight that carried its billionaire founder Sir Richard Branson into space — allowing the company to resume launches after a nearly month-long suspension.

The federal agency grounded Virgin Galactic earlier this month after media reports revealed that the company’s spacecraft went off course during the widely watched flight that carried Branson and five other crew members to space.

Shares of Virgin Galactic were up more than 9 percent, to about $24.60 per share, in premarket trading Thursday on the news of the end of the probe.

“The investigation found the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicle deviated from its assigned airspace on its descent from space. The FAA also found Virgin Galactic failed to communicate the deviation to the FAA as required,” a representative for the federal regulator said Wednesday evening.

“The FAA required Virgin Galactic to implement changes on how it communicates to the FAA during flight operations to keep the public safe. Virgin Galactic has made the required changes and can return to flight operations.”

The news that Branson’s widely watched launch into space had in fact not gone as smoothly as it appeared in the onboard livestream and media coverage of the launch was difficult to digest for shareholders.

After the FAA’s investigation, which barred the company from any more launches until the probe was closed, shares of Virgin Galactic fell almost ten percent in intraday trading.

“We appreciate the FAA’s thorough review of this inquiry. Our test flight program is specifically designed to continually improve our processes and procedures. The updates to our airspace and real-time mission notification protocols will strengthen our preparations as we move closer to the commercial launch of our spaceflight experience,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said Wednesday in a statement.

The FAA’s announcement will allow Virgin Galactic to go ahead with its “Unity 23” launch with the Italian Air Force some time in mid-October, as previously announced.

While the July 11 flight with Branson appeared to go off without a hitch, a report from The New Yorker first revealed that the pilots encountered a serious issue that even triggered an alarm.

The ship failed to climb to space steeply enough, prompting a yellow caution light to appear on the pilots’ console as the ship hurdled toward space at twice the speed of sound, The New Yorker reported, citing eight people with knowledge of Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight program.

The yellow light and the ship’s off-course trajectory endangered the mission and imperiled the ship’s chances of staying inside its mandated airspace, which was determined by the FAA, the report said.

Then the yellow light was reportedly replaced by a more urgent red one, which one of the pilots on board, Mike Masucci, a retired Air Force pilot, had previously said “should scare the crap out of you,” according to The New Yorker.

The pilots could either take immediate corrective action, or abort the rocket motor, the report said, alleging that the safer of the two options was to abort.

At the time of the report, a representative for Virgin Galactic downplayed the significance of the alarm signals, adding that the ship did not “travel above any population centers or cause a hazard to the public.”

“FAA representatives were present in our control room during the flight and in post-flight debriefs,” the representative added at the time.

“When the vehicle encountered high altitude winds which changed the trajectory, the pilots and systems monitored the trajectory to ensure it remained within mission parameters.

“Our pilots responded appropriately to these changing flight conditions exactly as they have been trained and in strict accordance with our established procedures.”