Tragic loss of life with Spaceship 2 explosion

[Adam the Akrodude]

Heard this morning of the explosion and crash of Spaceship 2 during a test flight. Reports on various news channels advise of the loss of life of the co-test pilot and the test pilot being seriously injured. Egressing Spaceship 2 must be very difficult in a emergency and I'm sure impossible at some stages of the flight envelope. Same reports advise of a explosion just after release from the mother-ship during rocket engine ignition and that this flight was testing a new propellant mix. This rocket engine is much like the SRB's used on the Shuttle - like Chinese skyrockets, once lit there is no stopping them until exhausted of the solid propellant.
We will no doubt in time hear the results of the thorough investigation already in progress. This will no doubt delay flights with the paying passengers and of course rightly so. The airspace over the Mojave high desert once again claimed the life of a very talented test pilot.

I guess this just re-enforces that fact that there is nothing "routine" about space flight - government funded or in private venture. This is flight right on the edge in terms of performance, altitude, material research and testing. My thoughts go out to the family and friends of the victims of this accident.

[tor lives]

Yep.....very sad indeed.
Despite what Branson and others may suggest, going into space will never be a "routine" activity regularly undertaken by the masses just for fun. It will never be just like catching a bus....not in the next century or two anyway.
Space travel (even near-earth space travel) is fraught with risk and danger with man and machine constantly at the very edge of their tolerances and limits.
Virgin Galactic is a quaint idea but I think perhaps a little ambitious for this period in time.
May the lost test pilot rest in peace and the other have a speedy recovery.
TOR

[F-27pax]

This, and the explosion of that commercial rocket on the launch pad only a few days earlier makes you wonder what about the safety of private enterprise space flight.

Your comments that space travel will never come to anything reads like the same kind of comments on air travel that you would have commonly read in the press into the 1920s. Now look where civil aviation is. The accidents we are seeing now are far less than the accidents and deaths people saw with the attempts to fly the Atlantic and the England-Australia flights of 1919, less than a century ago. It is likely that space technology will develop at a rapid rate too, if a profitable use for it can be found. I'm not sure that near-space tourism is likely to do it, but something like mining resources on the moon probably will.

[tor lives]

This, and the explosion of that commercial rocket on the launch pad only a few days earlier makes you wonder what about the safety of private enterprise space flight.

Your comments that space travel will never come to anything reads like the same kind of comments on air travel that you would have commonly read in the press into the 1920s. Now look where civil aviation is. The accidents we are seeing now are far less than the accidents and deaths people saw with the attempts to fly the Atlantic and the England-Australia flights of 1919, less than a century ago. It is likely that space technology will develop at a rapid rate too, if a profitable use for it can be found. I'm not sure that near-space tourism is likely to do it, but something like mining resources on the moon probably will.

G'day Leigh,
I didn't say "space travel will never come to anything", I am a firm believer in space exploration, (hay, I am after all a dorky Star Trek fan ).......what I said was that it will never become a routine activity regularly undertaken by the masses for fun, and I stand by that.
Being on the pointy end of a chemical rocket, (read barely controlled explosion), will always be high risk. Until such times as alternative propulsion methods are developed space travel will be confined to the elite/specialist few.
And one final thought.....space technology really hasn't developed at a rapid rate, in fact since the 70s (the last time we put a man on the moon), it has been surprisingly slow compared to other technology/science fields and disciplines.
TOR

[Adam the Akrodude]

I agree with Ray on the "Routine" of space flight comment. I don't think space flight should ever be classed as routine given the very "dynamic" nature of just getting up there. NASA got into this funk with the Shuttle with the all important "schedule" driving the pace, not overall safety considerations - Apollo 1, Challenger and Columbia disasters as examples with very similar attitudes and mistakes made and not learnt from.

Human nature being what it is, mistakes, miscalculations, misjudgements will continue to be made and tragically lives will continue to be lost. The commercialisation of space was always inevitable. Sadly, it just seems that the way to space (as has been in aviation at lower altitudes) is paved in the blood of those talented and brave enough to push we as a species higher, faster and farther.

Of course this Spaceship 2 disaster will be thoroughly investigated. Whether the launch "schedule" had anything to do with this accident remains to be seen. Was there adequate testing of the engine with this new fuel mixture? Was it just a unforseen issue with engine design/construction? Without doubt, those test pilots well knew the risks. I don't think that Spaceship 2 is fitted with bang seats despite the press saying that the co-test pilot "ejected". He may have been literally blown out in the explosion and the chute automatically activated at whatever altitude it was set to do so? From photos released of the explosion, he is very lucky to be alive. I wonder at what Mach number and altitude the accident occurred?

The only thing that irks me is that Richard Branson has partially financed this venture using pre-paid tickets. He ain't exactly short of a quid. Perhaps I'm being a little over-sensitive, but I don't think this is right.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Link to what appears to be the cause of this crash - premature activation of the re-entry wing "feathering" system.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2826439/Last-desperate-moments-inside-Virgin-spaceship-revealed-cockpit-video-former-project-chief-says-pilot-error-blame-fatal-crash.html

[Tony P]

I liked the quote doing the rounds that Virgin Galactic is only making the worlds most expensive roller coaster.