Virgin Galactic Spaceship experiences anomaly over the Mojave

[ronny]

Like an explosion?

 

[RickN]

It's the polite way of saying clusterf**k.

Yep!!!

 

[Wheel Gun]

I'm not sure what kind of testing budget they have, but it's got to be limited. This article speaks to the dangerous strides they were attempting:

SpaceShipTwo was testing a new plastic-based rocket fuel for the first time Friday. An eyewitness told The Daily Beast that the spacecraft exploded shortly after the rocket motor was ignited. The spaceship had not flown a powered flight in about nine months because engineers were switching out its original engine that used rubber-based rocket fuel for the new engine, which used plastic-based fuel.

Scaled Composites, which built the spacecraft, had experienced some problems with the new rocket, which until Friday had only been tested on the ground. While the new motor holds much promise of greatly increased performance, there were some serious risks associated with the new rocket—as Friday’s incident proved.

With the new rocket installed, SpaceShipTwo was expected to fly more than five times higher than it had ever flown before—right to the edge of space at 62 miles above the Earth. In some ways, SpaceShipTwo, which was to reach a maximum speed of about 2,500 miles per hour during its ascent into space, was pushing the limits of its virtually untested design.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/31/spaceshiptwo-flew-on-untested-rocket-motor.html

 

[yabob]

Oh, come on! If anyone, anywhere, I would think the membership here would be very supportive of a company, a program, and for God's sake the people, who are making major risks to expand our frontier, to move out, to boldly go etc. etc. I'm 53 and grew up, like I hope a lot of you, reading SF, watching Apollo with awe, and wanting to be part of that. Hell, the main reason I got an engineering degree was wanting to be an astronaut as a kid. NASA basically gave up a long time ago. We NEED new frontiers, new reasons for bright people to strive for and goals to work towards. The few companies, like Virgin Galactic, represent the best we could be and should be supported as if our future depended on it.

 

[cmhbob]

Virgin Galactic at this point has a better safety record than NASA when it comes to flight crew deaths.

 

[ronny]

I don't see people here being unsupportive of V.A. So far, it's just been the typical ball-busting comments, light ones, at that. Frankly, every time I see that ship with it's odd tail arrangement, I ask myself, "how do those spars stand the strain of that kind of speed?" Having said that, I'd love to see it succeed.

 

[p238shooter]

I wonder how many people were killed trying to be the first person to fly before the Wright Brothers suceeded. Duing something normal has risks. Doing somthing abnormal usually has more risks.

 

[dennishoddy]

Its testing for Gods Sake. Good grief.

I'm betting no industry has a perfect record in testing their prototypes.

 

[aviator41]

I feel for those pilots. They knew the risk, they took it. I grieve the loss of those heroes.

Privatized space flight is where it's at. Nasa used and abundance of dollar bills to keep the gremlins away (usually). VG is doing the best the can with the smartest folks available. They are going places only governmental agencies have gone. Let us not dim the light of bracery shining on these men. They are the braest of all. They are our heroes.

 

[dennishoddy]

I'm not seeing a link to anybody dying?