Explosion at Scaled Composites kills 2, seriously injures 4

[kevinh]

Wow. This sounds like horrible news at one of the early homes of homebuilt aircraft.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...=la-home-local

[the_other_dougreeves]

Engine test for SpaceShip Two. Now 3 fatalities reported. A black day for the Scaled Composites family.

[jrouault]

I heard from a fellow pilot that was visiting Mojave that Burt Rutan sold Scaled Composites to Northrop Grumman last week. Can anyone confirm the rumor? It would be a real shame if this was true.

[jcoloccia]

They already owned a big chunk of it. All they did was sell the rest.

It's OK, though. They tend to leave little companies that rock to their own devices. I know...we were just bought by Northrop too and they're pretty much keeping their nose out of our business.

[rtry9a]

There is something wrong here with the report... NOS is an oxidizer, it is not combustable by itself, and should be more or less safe UNLESS there is some other fuel present (some hydrocarbon- oil or grease perhaps). Sounds like a bit of amateurish lab practices going on with energetic materials. Someone might be liable to a negligence lawsuit.

FWIW, I had some safety/environmental background with energetic materials (rocket motors).

[Ironflight]

This is very sad news, because I believe very strongly the the eventual, long-term future of space transportation lies in the commercial sector. (Just as the NACA did fundamental research and built many aircraft in the early years of aviation, yet the actual airline industry was created based on that research and technology "seeding" by the government.)

This just underscores the serious (and, I am afraid, the expensive) nature of space and rocket development. While I have no idea what caused this accident, I have seen previous tragedies occur simply because we didn't know that a combination of materials or factors would do something unexpected. Dealing with pure oxygen environments and materials has caused numerous serious accidents, and I am sure that there are similar potentially catastrophic issues with NOS. Obviously, something went wrong, and the presense of so much pressurized oxydizer made it that much worse.

Aerospace research and exploration are dangerous - lets face it. People have died in airplanes and spacecraft because we are still learning. The only thing that I am sadly sure of is that it will happen again. The question, then, is whether or not we (the collective we) are willing to continue to press on in the face of difficulty and fatality to reach the goals. I hope the best for the families involved, and for Scaled's future.

[Yukon]

Rutan's vehicle puts the human body into the edge of space without the protection of a spacesuit. Not a good idea.

[Nomex Maximus]

A very, very sad day for Scaled Composites, Burt Rutan and the familes. I am sure we all wish them the best.

---

Responding to Paul's comments. I can remember way back when I was a kid watching the movie "Marooned'. It was a fictional account about three astronauts who were stranded in orbit in an Apollo spacecraft. One scene portrayed the NASA flight director as being asked by a reporter, "Was this flight worth the lives you lost?" to which an angry Gregory Peck shoots back, "You're d*mn right it was! If it weren't for the sacrifice of this crew, we never get off this planet..."

I suppose why that was a big movie scene was that somehow it touched a nerve in the American psyche that makes us think that yes indeed what we are doing is so important that it is worth taking risks and losing lives. We want to justify those awful dangers by saying that what they (the astronauts) do is so important that we can justify an occasional loss of a crew. We treat them like heroes because they face the risks so that we can have a space program.

But is spaceflight (or for that matter any flight) really worth all this? Perhaps you would respond like the NASA movie character, "You're d*mn right it is!" I do not wish to be insensitive or stir up controversy here, but is it really worth it? To the wives of those lost? To the sons? To the daughters? What would really have been better, a young boy who lost a father who was developing a spacecraft or a middle-aged man who lived to see his father grow old having never made a spacecraft or flown in space?

We want desperately at a time like this to be able to say it was worth it in order to ease the pain of the moment. To justify the loss. But the bottom line is that there is not a justification, just a loss. We want so much that there be a balancing of the profit to the loss in the flying equation that we glorify the attempt of flight far above the nobility of even life itself.

For me, it just doesn't work and it never will.

I don't think space flight, or any flight, including my own little RV is worth that risk. But do I think we should end the manned spaceflight program? No. Do I think we should stop trying to develop commercial space flight? No. And do I think I should stop building my RV? No. But is any of this worth losing lives over? No. Not any of it, not ever. A tragedy is a tragedy is a tragedy. No great reach of flight will ever change that.

But yes, we all will going on flying. Flying and building. And having some fun along the way. And, as long as we don't die doing it, it will be well worth it. But we need to do everything we possibly can to fly safe because a lost life will never come up as worth it.

Fly safe my friends

NM

[Mike S]

Originally Posted by Nomex Maximus

I don't think space flight, or any flight, including my own little RV is worth that risk. But do I think we should end the manned spaceflight program? No. Do I think we should stop trying to develop commercial space flight? No. And do I think I should stop building my RV? No. But is any of this worth losing lives over? No. Not any of it, not ever. A tragedy is a tragedy is a tragedy. No great reach of flight will ever change that.

But yes, we all will going on flying. Flying and building. And having some fun along the way. And, as long as we don't die doing it, it is well worth it.

Fly safe my friends

John Babrick

Well said.