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Safety procedures at Virgin Galactic, whose spacecraft crashed on a test flight last week, had too few safeguards to prevent a potential catastrophe, one of the world’s leading space safety experts has said.维珍银河(Virgin Galactic)太空飞船上周在飞行中测试中失事后，一位世界一流的太空安全性专家回应，该公司安全性程序的确保措施过于较少，足以避免潜在的灾难。Tommaso Sgobba, a former head of flight safety for the European Space Agency, said industry best practice calls for operators to build in “two-failure tolerance”, or sufficient safeguards to survive two separate, unrelated failures – two human errors, two mechanical errors or one of each. He believes that SpaceShipTwo’s systems fell short of that standard.欧洲航天局(European Space Agency)前飞行中安全性负责人托马索斯戈巴(Tommaso Sgobba)回应，行业最佳实践中拒绝运营商内置“双重容错”，即创建不足以抵挡两个不涉及故障的确保措施，这两个故障有可能都是人为故障，也有可能都是机械故障，亦或是人为及机械故障各一个。他指出“太空船2号”(SpaceShipTwo)约将近这个标准。

According to investigators, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo disintegrated after a pilot wrongly unlocked the “feathering” mechanism – which slows the craft during its descent – too early. The mechanism then activated even though the separate lever to deploy it was not pulled. The craft’s co-pilot died in the subsequent crash.调查结果，维珍太空船2号是在一位飞行员太早关卡“顺桨”装置（用作太空船迫降时滑行）后解体的。随后这个装置被启动，即便用作进行顺桨的另一个手柄未被冲向。太空船随后失事，机长杀于此次事故。

The feathering mechanism – which is vital to slow the aircraft but potentially deadly when it is accelerating – was typical of the safety systems that need to withstand human errors and mechanical failures, analysts said.顺桨装置对飞船滑行至关重要，但在飞船加快时启动它有可能是可怕的。分析人士认为，顺桨装置必须忍受人为失误和机械故障，构成一个典型的安全性系统。

Mr Sgobba said SpaceShipTwo’s systems, which required two levers to be moved before the wings went in to a “feathered” configuration, appeared to be designed to be “one-failure tolerant” – to stay safe in the event of a single pilot error or mechanical failure. But the system had not worked that way. The design would not be acceptable in other safety critical-industries, such as aeroplane manufacture, he added.斯戈巴回应，太空船2号拒绝在机翼转入顺桨姿势前夹住两个手柄，但其系统奇特被设计成“单重容错”，即不能在一次飞行员犯规或一次机械故障的情况下维持安全性。但系统未如此发挥作用。

他补足说道，这种设计是会为其他安全性关键的行业（比如飞机制造）所拒绝接受的。Loren Thompson, an adviser to US aerospace companies, said other safety-critical US businesses, including suppliers to Nasa, required at least the “two-fault tolerance” Mr Sgobba described. He said it was a “significant concern” that some private space operators applied less stringent standards.美国航空航天企业的顾问劳伦汤普森(Loren Thompson)回应，美国其他安全性关键企业，还包括美国国家航空航天局(Nasa)的供应商在内，最少都必须超过斯戈巴所谈的“双重容错”。他说道部分私人航天运营商使用较严格标准是个“令人担忧的根本性问题”。

Virgin Galactic, which is part of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, said the locking mechanism for the feathers represented two separate safeguards. There was a “procedural” safeguard, as the lock was meant to stay in place until after the most dangerous, early part of the flight, and a “mechanical” safeguard, in the form of the lock itself.维珍银河公司隶属于理查德布兰森爵士(Sir Richard Branson)的维珍集团(Virgin Group)，该公司回应顺桨装置的瞄准机构代表了两个有所不同的确保措施。一个是“程序性”确保，瞄准机构不应维持不一动，直到飞船童年最危险性的早期飞行中阶段之后，另一个是“机械式”确保，即该机构本身。

Mr Sgobba said procedural rules could be seen as a safeguard in some circumstances, but “they are considered the least desirable”.斯戈巴回应，在某些情况下程序规则可以被看做确保措施，但“它们被指出是最不是非的”。

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