I'm still mulling over the reason to unlock the feathering system in the early stages of the flight. The plausible argument, that the system is esential for a safe re-entry and that therefore the functioning of the system has to be tested before leaving to space makes sense, but does that apply to a testflight where neither achieved Mach nor achieved altitude would be high enough that usage of said system is critical?
In search for a more detailed description of the system i found the following patent, which was filed 2004 for the spaceship One re-entry system, and as Spaceship Two is known as being a scale up, it might still apply to the system used in Spaceship Two as well.
The unlock system and the feathering system are pneumatically operated.
Patent US20060108479 - Winged spacecraft - Google Patents
What is the reason behind to unlock a safety feature that early in flight? Is it to have it available already during ascent if stability issues arrive to slow the ascent or to stabilize the ascent by other means when flight control inputs or gas thrusters are not effective or failed?
Something does not sum up, there is no urgency at all in a test flight like that to arm the system that early in a flight.