This seems like something that the NTSB will find interesting.
6 thoughts on “Virgin Galactic’s Part-Time VP Of Safety”
So what did this “VP of Safety” do that was so important that it requires anyone, much less a full time position? As was noted in the article, Turnipseed’s job was covered by several people at the various areas of VG and Scaled Composites. Further, if one reads the first sentence of his quoted job description:
As Virgin Galactic’s Head of Safety, Jon’s role is to define and develop the operational safety framework and lead the team in keeping safety as Virgin Galactic’s North Star. His responsibilities encompass all safety aspects of the company’s operations, from standard OSHA compliance through space launch mission activities.
The thing is, Virgin Galactic is not directly involved in production or test flights. These are undertaken, as I understand it, by Scaled Composites as the primary contractor for The Spaceship Company, which was jointly owned by VG and SC. Thus, there were no space launch mission activities on the horizon for at least a year (IMHO) even before the accident. And current OSHA compliance would be things like making sure your office workers know where the first aid kit is and how to dial 911.
If Virgin Galactic isn’t launching, then they don’t have a huge safety workload. There’s almost no need for an on-call safety officer in Virgin Galactic at this time. I bet Turnipseed probably spent his time doing long term prep work like writing up preliminary outlines for safety procedures, making estimates of how much resources and people would be needed to carry through on those safety procedures, and acting as an adviser to the full time executives of VG. Maybe he even figured out how long before actual flights start, that they should hire his successor and form the safety organization. That wouldn’t require a full time position.
I suspect that whoever they hire for the position now will spend at least a year or two cooling their heels before anything ramps up to the point where it requires significant attention. Sure, they’ll hire someone because it’ll look bad in the media otherwise, but I disagree that the full time position is required at this time for actual safety reasons.
I don’t see this as a big deal right now. Scaled is in charge of the test program, so I suspect the NTSB is focusing on their processes and procedures, not VG’s. I have no inside knowledge into how Scaled runs a flight test program though.
Does United Airlines’ VP of Safety (or equivalent) have a heavy influence in Boeing’s flight test program? Somehow, I think not. However, Scaled is developing SpaceShipTwo exclusively for Virgin Galactic. It won’t operate like normal airplanes and has some novel procedures and risks. That being the case, I would expect reasonably close coordination between Scaled and VG. Whether or not VG needs a full time VP of Safety before they begin operations is a matter for debate. Personally, I think that position would be required within a few months of beginning operations as everyone ramps up to carry paying passengers. There are safety issues with training, maintenance, flight operations, passenger training, and servicing the planes between flights that all have to be developed and put into place.
Methinks Doug is trolling for clicks with articles like this.
So what did this “VP of Safety” do that was so important that it requires anyone, much less a full time position? As was noted in the article, Turnipseed’s job was covered by several people at the various areas of VG and Scaled Composites. Further, if one reads the first sentence of his quoted job description:
The thing is, Virgin Galactic is not directly involved in production or test flights. These are undertaken, as I understand it, by Scaled Composites as the primary contractor for The Spaceship Company, which was jointly owned by VG and SC. Thus, there were no space launch mission activities on the horizon for at least a year (IMHO) even before the accident. And current OSHA compliance would be things like making sure your office workers know where the first aid kit is and how to dial 911.
If Virgin Galactic isn’t launching, then they don’t have a huge safety workload. There’s almost no need for an on-call safety officer in Virgin Galactic at this time. I bet Turnipseed probably spent his time doing long term prep work like writing up preliminary outlines for safety procedures, making estimates of how much resources and people would be needed to carry through on those safety procedures, and acting as an adviser to the full time executives of VG. Maybe he even figured out how long before actual flights start, that they should hire his successor and form the safety organization. That wouldn’t require a full time position.
I suspect that whoever they hire for the position now will spend at least a year or two cooling their heels before anything ramps up to the point where it requires significant attention. Sure, they’ll hire someone because it’ll look bad in the media otherwise, but I disagree that the full time position is required at this time for actual safety reasons.
I don’t see this as a big deal right now. Scaled is in charge of the test program, so I suspect the NTSB is focusing on their processes and procedures, not VG’s. I have no inside knowledge into how Scaled runs a flight test program though.
Does United Airlines’ VP of Safety (or equivalent) have a heavy influence in Boeing’s flight test program? Somehow, I think not. However, Scaled is developing SpaceShipTwo exclusively for Virgin Galactic. It won’t operate like normal airplanes and has some novel procedures and risks. That being the case, I would expect reasonably close coordination between Scaled and VG. Whether or not VG needs a full time VP of Safety before they begin operations is a matter for debate. Personally, I think that position would be required within a few months of beginning operations as everyone ramps up to carry paying passengers. There are safety issues with training, maintenance, flight operations, passenger training, and servicing the planes between flights that all have to be developed and put into place.
Methinks Doug is trolling for clicks with articles like this.
Maybe trawling not trolling.
Maybe he’s trawling by trolling.