#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming.
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
Background here.
Ugh.
Checking the hashtag #SpaceShipTwo, there is speculation surrounding parachute sighting and disintegration per @Morgann_Grace and @jlangdale
— Skyler Shaw (@skylerwshaw) October 31, 2014
Local news is reporting fire department movement in connection with #SpaceShipTwo flight anomaly. =\
— Matthew Dockrey (@gfish) October 31, 2014
Latest unconfirmed reports – One pilot found with minor injuries, the other missing deceased.
Update: LA Times reporting.
Uh Oh. One of those pilots may be my cousin.
Confirmed via Drudge, one dead.
My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the two pilots. Space exploration is not without its risks as we have been so tragically reminded.
Having said that I also wonder how many celebrities will have second thoughts about their sub-orbital flights. A quarter of a million dollars is a lot to pay for a chance to die.
Apparently running an “untested” engine. They were using a new solid fuel, but I would think they had tested it on the ground first.
Here’s what most of the spacecraft looks like: https://twitter.com/ShuttleAlmanac/status/528288073873125376/photo/1
A very bad day. Been a bad week all around. I hope your cousin’s all right, Joe.
Hopefully this will be the end of Scaled’s foray into hybrid rocket engines. They already had one blow up killing three people on the ground, and now this.
This sucks. I hope all this doesn’t cause too big a hit to the private spaceflight industry as a whole. I can imagine there are more people who will now think twice about investing in something like SpaceX now. Crappy week indeed.
Probably did test it on the ground but the purpose of a test flight is to test a flying machine and it’s components actually flying. Somebody has to do it and test pilots are trained do that stuff, and sometimes pays for the results with the ultimate cost.
Never like to see anyone perish like that but I hope it doesn’t put a damper on the civilian space program. Remember, the Wright Brothers pranged a few airframes testing stuff.
RIP
Per ardua ad astra
Obama hates the military and science. He’s taken the USA from a trail blazer in manned space flight to a country that has no ability to put a man in space.
He has to rely and pay Putin to do that for him
A bit of a relief. Although my cousin flew Spaceship 1 several times he does not regularly fly Spaceship 2. He is the Pilot in Command of the launch vehicle.
Well that is a bit of a shock. My cousin was pilot in command of Spaceship Two when it blew up. He survived and is alert in hospital. His co-pilot was killed. God’s speed Michael Tyner Alsbury a brave man taken too soon.
“Never like to see anyone perish like that but I hope it doesn’t put a damper on the civilian space program. Remember, the Wright Brothers pranged a few airframes testing stuff.”
Yes. This sort of thing is by its very nature dangerous.
We tend to forget that with most of the transportation technology that we now take so much for granted, someone always had to go first.