Virgin Galactic craft explodes, then crashes - space tourism hits snag

[Matt1970]

A shame. Get ready for the government to come in and shut down the whole program.

Ya because the government has never had a rocket explode....

 

[Newell Steamer]

The death and injury is a shame - nature of the beast in moving forward.

 

[unokitty]

Respect and sympathy for the pilots and their families...

Bit of a back story on those engines.

Uno

 

[Brovane]

Respect and sympathy for the pilots and their families...

Bit of a back story on those engines.

Uno

Thanks that was a interesting article. They certainly are not going to be meet the end of the year deadline so we will see what happens.

 

[DominionSeraph]

Risk and death is part of advancing space exploration.

Spaceship 2 isn't even up to the X-15.

 

[dmcowen674]

Branson just did an interview at Scaled Composites.

I doubt he'll see space flight in his lifetime.

 

[moonbogg]

The pilot who survived ejected at 45,000 feet? Holy crap, that's insane.

 

[norseamd]

I wonder the same. Is this something that is acceptable to happen during testing? Or is it something that will shake the confidence of customers to where they won't fly?

No. The program will continue progress regardless of this incident. They already had some casualties from explosions of equipment a long time ago and I know Richard Branson is not just going to drop this whole program like it was nothing. This program is already many years delayed and look forward to at least a year or more of work on the engines of SpaceShip Two.

 

[norseamd]

Branson just did an interview at Scaled Composites.

I doubt he'll see space flight in his lifetime.

 

[norseamd]

Respect and sympathy for the pilots and their families...

Bit of a back story on those engines.

Uno

This article cleared away a lot of smoke for me. If Branson and Galatic started rushing everything to meet those deadlines then some lawsuits from the families of the pilot and copilot might be incoming. This could break Branson and Galactic but private spaceflight is chugging on regardless. Have any other links that are as informative on anything in the space industry? Literally anything at all there is so much need of information on space for me especially stuff like original articles and in depth content.

 

[norseamd]

After Mike Melvill became the first private astronaut in June 2004, he stood atop SpaceShipOne holding a sign made by a member of the crowd that read, “SpaceShipOne Government Zero.” Today, those numbers remain embarrassingly skewed in favor of government, while SpaceShipOne remains a momentary blip in the history of spaceflight.

Perhaps this will have changed by the time of Ansari X Prizes’s 11th anniversary. But, to those who would confidently predict that it will, the past 10 years are a sobering reminder of how such predictions can wilt in the hot Mojave sun.

Written a day earlier than the SpaceShipTwo test flight and the resulting catastrophe. Even more true now.


http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/10/30/apollo-ansari-hobbling-effects-giant-leaps/

 

[Number1]

The pilot who survived ejected at 45,000 feet? Holy crap, that's insane.

The "ejection system" consist of a rough net for the pilot to drag himself to the hatch. It looks like the surviving pilot was trown free.

 

[sunzt]

That's the impression I always had of this craft, even though I never followed it closely. I always assumed that a near perfect safety record, all throughout flight testing would be needed in order to build the necessary trust to put non essential civilians in space for profit.

As of October 2014, SpaceShipTwo has conducted 54 test flights. It seems to be reasonable to expect a reasonable level of safety.

 

[dmcowen674]

As of October 2014, SpaceShipTwo has conducted 54 test flights. It seems to be reasonable to expect a reasonable level of safety.

The 54 were not with that new fuel formulation though.

Funding will be pulled for this, doubt that Branson has the money to fund it himself or find new investors.

 

[sunzt]

A shame. Get ready for the government to come in and shut down the whole program.

Government has been an advocate for commercial space. In fact, congress banned the FAA from establishing regulations for commercial space until 2016. This limits the FAA to publishing "guidelines" that the industry usually meets or exceeds.

The FAA's office of commercial space has been specifically established to help promote, certify, and regulate commercial space launches and have been supporting the industry by helping Air traffic control accommodate their launches and researching economical surveillance technology to surveil commercial space vehicles. There is also the FAA's Center of Excellence for Commercial Space Transportation that invests in research to enable commercial space transportation.

The industry is looking to the FAA to help establish standards for range and vehicle safety, medical safety (for pilots and passengers), and ensure equitable access to airspace.

 

[sunzt]

The 54 were not with that new fuel formulation though.

Funding will be pulled for this, doubt that Branson has the money to fund it himself or find new investors.

They did do ground tests on the new fuel formula without problems. Perhaps they may go back to the original formula.

I would be surprised if funding gets pulled for this. I don't think Branson would like to refund all those deposits. Plus, they have made so much progress that they can't afford to stop now, especially when they are so close. Would be a total waste of time and money.

 

[norseamd]

The 54 were not with that new fuel formulation though. Funding will be pulled for this, doubt that Branson has the money to fund it himself or find new investors.

Read the Parabolicarc articles on this catastrophe and the problems with the current private space programs.

 

[norseamd]

They did do ground tests on the new fuel formula without problems. Perhaps they may go back to the original formula. I would be surprised if funding gets pulled for this. I don't think Branson would like to refund all those deposits. Plus, they have made so much progress that they can't afford to stop now, especially when they are so close. Would be a total waste of time and money.

Once again read the Parabolicarc articles on this problem with engines for the private space companies.

There is a 3rd engine that is actually the most effective one to use but they need to do more testing and it might require a full redesign of the SpaceShipTwo to even work but it seems they have no other options right now.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally Posted by dmcowen674
The 54 were not with that new fuel formulation though.

Funding will be pulled for this, doubt that Branson has the money to fund it himself or find new investors.

They did do ground tests on the new fuel formula without problems. Perhaps they may go back to the original formula.

I would be surprised if funding gets pulled for this. I don't think Branson would like to refund all those deposits. Plus, they have made so much progress that they can't afford to stop now, especially when they are so close. Would be a total waste of time and money.

You haven't kept up with this project very well.

The old formula could not get the height to meet being far enough out of the atmosphere.

Branson said he has not touched the money (basically in escrow). The funding is mainly from the United Arab Emeriates.

 

[BoomerD]

While it's a shame that someone was killed...I, for one, see this:

Virgin Galactic craft explodes, then crashes -

as a good thing. I don't want an exploded Virgin Galactic craft still flying around in the atmosphere...

I don't actually care about the impact to Richard Branson or his company...I'm more than a little suspicious about private companies getting into the space travel biz...but the learning that can (hopefully) come from putting more and more minds on the problem should be a good thing.

 

[Darwin333]

I have been reading a few articles by experts that are speculating the vehicle itself failed and NOT the engine. In some of the pics you can see the engine burning normally after the aircraft started breaking up indicating that it probably wasn't the issue.

 

[StinkyPinky]

While it's a shame that someone was killed...I, for one, see this:


as a good thing. I don't want an exploded Virgin Galactic craft still flying around in the atmosphere...

I don't actually care about the impact to Richard Branson or his company...I'm more than a little suspicious about private companies getting into the space travel biz...but the learning that can (hopefully) come from putting more and more minds on the problem should be a good thing.

Private companies is the only way the US is going to make a decent go into space. Unlike China, the US govt has to answer to the people and while they are quite happy to spend a trillion dollars on weapons and guns, spending even just 5% of that on space travel is seen as a "waste" apparently.

The other option is to team up with the ESA but they're even more poorly funded so....yeah. Expect the Chinese to be the first to mars.

 

[Brovane]

Private companies is the only way the US is going to make a decent go into space. Unlike China, the US govt has to answer to the people and while they are quite happy to spend a trillion dollars on weapons and guns, spending even just 5% of that on space travel is seen as a "waste" apparently.

The other option is to team up with the ESA but they're even more poorly funded so....yeah. Expect the Chinese to be the first to mars.

It isn't so much the amount of money that is the problem. It is more about how NASA is structured and how Congress dictates engineering decisions to NASA. If Congress would stop us the space program as just a jobs program we could make more progress.

 

[SoulWager]

The vehicle feathers to increase drag for reentry, looks like that happened at the wrong point of flight. The mechanism was unlocked too early(human error?) and the feather mechanism activated without being commanded to(hardware or software issue?)

Still too early for the NTSB to say this caused LoV, but it did happen a couple seconds before they lost telemetry.

Engine and tanks were found with no evidence of an explosion.


Source(NTSB press conference): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjYVhGvUSNc

 

[Number1]

The vehicle feathers to increase drag for reentry, looks like that happened at the wrong point of flight. The mechanism was unlocked too early(human error?) and the feather mechanism activated without being commanded to(hardware or software issue?)

Still too early for the NTSB to say this caused LoV, but it did happen a couple seconds before they lost telemetry.

Engine and tanks were found with no evidence of an explosion.


Source(NTSB press conference): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjYVhGvUSNc

We don't know that for sure. Maybe the pilot was reacting to an issue that required this activation. The telemetry should provide the answer.