Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Originally Posted by American Patriot
Space Ship Two has crashed.
Pilots' conditions unknown at this time.
The plane is down safely.
Your statements are at odds of each other. Down safely != Has Crashed.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
WhiteKnightTwo, carrying SpaceShipTwo, takes flight over Spaceport America, northeast of Truth Or Consequences, N.M. AFP PHOTO / Frederic J. BROWN/FILESFREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty ImagesAFP/Getty Images
AP
October 31, 2014 2:18 PM
MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic has reported an unspecified problem during a test flight of its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket.
The company tweeted Friday morning that SpaceShipTwo was flying under rocket power and then tweeted that it had ‘‘experienced an in-flight anomaly.’’ The tweet said more information would be forthcoming.
Kern County Fire Department reports it is heading to a location in the Mojave Desert. California Highway Patrol Officer Darlena Dotson says the agency is responding to a report of a crash in the Cantil area.
SpaceShipTwo has been under development at Mojave Air and Spaceport in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.
SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft by a specially designed jet and then released before igniting its rocket for suborbital thrill ride into space and then a return to Earth as a glider.
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Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Virgin Galactic says space tourism rocket lost
October 31, 2014 | Updated: October 31, 2014 1:51pm
Image 1 out of 9
Smiley N. Pool/Houston Chronicle
A mockup of SpaceShipTwo sits next to the Virgin GalacticÕs Gateway To Space building at Spaceport America on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2014, in Upham, N.M. The facility is home to Virgin Galactic operations and fleet of motherships and spaceships.
MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic reported that its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket has been lost in Southern California and the status of the pilots is unclear.
The company tweeted Friday: "During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo."
The company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson would not say what happened other that it was working with authorities to determine the cause of the "accident."
Kern County Fire Department reported it was heading to a location in the Mojave Desert. California Highway Patrol Officer Darlena Dotson said the agency was responding to a report of a crash in the Cantil area.
Virgin Galactic has been the front-runner in the fledgling space-tourism industry. SpaceShipTwo, typically flown by a crew of two pilots, has been under development in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.
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MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic reported that its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket has been lost in Southern California and the status of the pilots is unclear.
The company tweeted Friday: "During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo."
The company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson would not say what happened other that it was working with authorities to determine the cause of the "accident."
Kern County Fire Department reported it was heading to a location in the Mojave Desert. California Highway Patrol Officer Darlena Dotson said the agency was responding to a report of a crash in the Cantil area.
Virgin Galactic has been the front-runner in the fledgling space-tourism industry. SpaceShipTwo, typically flown by a crew of two pilots, has been under development in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.
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Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during California test flight
Reuters
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Oct 31 (Reuters) - A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said.
Two pilots were aboard the spaceship, which was undergoing its first powered test flight since January. It was not immediately known if they were able to parachute to safety.
More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to fly aboard the spaceship, which is carried to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and released. The spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100 km) high, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.
The spaceship is based on a prototype, called SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.
Friday's test was to be the spaceship's first powered test flight since January. In May, Virgin Galactic and spaceship developer Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp, switched to an alternative plastic-type of fuel grain for the hybrid rocket motor.
The accident is the second this week by a U.S. space company. On Tuesday, an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. (Reporting by Irene Klotz; Editing by David Adams and James Dalgleish)
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Problems experienced during a test flight of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo may have resulted in the death of one of its two crewmembers, according to early and unconfirmed reports surfacing on Twitter.
Virgin Galactic announced on its feed that an "anomaly" occurred six minutes after it was released from its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, over the Mojave Desert.
Wreckage and at least one parachute were observed on the ground, via ">a live feed posted by ABC News 23, which sent a helicopter to the scene. Two parachutes were seen by onlookers, according to reports, and one of the crewmembers is said to have also been seen alive on the ground.
Stephen Clark, of Spaceflightnow.com, writes that it was the 55th flight of SpaceShipTwo and its 35th free flight: "It was the fourth time SpaceShipTwo had fired up its rocket motor in flight, and the first powered mission since Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, the craft’s builder, switched from a rubber-based propellant to a plastic-based fuel mix."
Officials confirmed to reporters that two people were onboard the vessel and that officials were looking for the pilots.
SpaceShipTwo's design would let it carry six passengers and two pilots on trips to the edge of space, with hundreds of reservations already taken for the $250,000 ride. Virgin Galactic boss Richard Branson had hoped to see the earliest flights next year. The Mojave Air and Spaceport is 60 miles south of Bakersfield, California.
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Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Surprising that you could survive something that blows up the plane.
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
I am thinking like you, Challenger. I remember seeing that seconds after it happened on replay. I missed the launch by perhaps 1 minute. The explosion was 73 seconds into the launch and I walked in as they were showing the replay. My wife was standing there watching, crying. She's already figured out what happened.
My youngest son was born the next day. He will be 29 this year.
But I read they just changed the type of fuel they were using recently.
They have done this flight dozens of times it sounds like.
It's possible the rocket engine exploded and the ship itself was mostly intact. The pilot that escaped probably couldn't do much other than jump and hope to hell he made it.
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Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the crash, said the space tourism craft exploded after it was released from a plane that carries it to a high altitude.
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Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Originally Posted by Malsua
Surprising that you could survive something that blows up the plane.
Apparently, you can't survive normally. Guess there was a 50/50 chance. Read on:
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashes in engine test [Update]
Oct 31, 2014
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo has crashed during today's test flight, with the high-speed rocket plane coming down east of Mojave. Virgin Galactic first confirmed an incident had taken place via Twitter, with a terse message saying the space plane "has experienced an in-flight anomaly," and promising additional information on the situation to follow. According to local reports, which also confirmed the crash, there has been one fatality and one injury, with SpaceShipTwo itself in pieces on the Californian desert.
Director of the Mojave Air and Space Port Stu Witt told the Kern Golden Empire News that a press conference would be held this afternoon. According to the site, scanner traffic suggested at least one fatality is involved.
SpaceShipTwo flies with two pilots onboard. ParabolicArc's Doug Messier was on-site in Mojave, and reported on Twitter that he had seen the space plane encounter issues with its engines.
Back in Mojave now. Ss2 had trouble with engine burn, blew up, came down in pieces near Koehn Lake. — Parabolicarc.com (@spacecom) October 31, 2014
Saw on of crash sites. Body still in seat. — Parabolicarc.com (@spacecom) October 31, 2014
Today's test was to be only the fourth powered flight for SpaceShipTwo, and indeed the first time since January that the engines were used.
It was also an opportunity for Virgin Galactic to test a new rubber-nitrous oxide engine which burns nylon from a polyamide-based fuel grain. Replacing the existing rubber-hybrid engine, the new system was expected to be more powerful and thus allow SpaceShipTwo to fly higher in the Earth's atmosphere.
Virgin Galactic's goal is to take space tourists to around 62 miles above the planet. At that altitude, the plane would officially be considered to be flying in space, traveling at speeds of up to 2,485 mph.
In follow-up comments from Virgin Galactic, the company said that fatalities were yet to be confirmed, but has not given any further indication of what caused the crash itself.
UPDATE:Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of #SpaceShipTwo earlier today. (1 of 4) — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely. (2 of 4) — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. (3 of 4)
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP. (4 of 4) — Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
The crash follows the failure of the unmanned Antares rocket earlier this week, which exploded on takeoff as it began a resupply mission to the International Space Station.
Update: According to the AP, one pilot was killed and the other is in a critical condition and being transported to a medical facility. Wreckage of the plane can be seen from the air, CNN reports.
Re: The United States is OUT OF THE SPACE BUSINESS
Originally Posted by American Patriot
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