Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crashes...

4T5 · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:11

Was Gutted when I heard this on the radio earlier, Hope the familys are coping Ok.

As for the other docs about the early Jet ages I've seen most & it's always struck me that nobody even remembers these Dudes that jumped in one off Jets & did things in them tempting fate all in the name of technological advancement. Dudes were proper Men, Real Heroes. :cool:

Jokester · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:28

Disaster, this could push things back years. I hope the 2nd pilot makes a recovery but I can't help think with the nature of the crash that it's not likely. Sounds like a mid air explosion and break up of the spacecraft

Flibster · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:33

*doffs hat*

Pushing the boundaries of what is possible always has consequences. Many hundreds have died expanding what is technically possible over the 111 years of powered flight since the Wright Brothers flew 120ft at Kittyhawk on December 14th 1903.

Sadly, Space Ship Two seems to be having a few issues in it's development lifetime at the moment. But, it's not the first to suffer in this way, and as long as manned flight exists, it won't be the last.

Tefal · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:34

this_is_gav said:
I didn't say otherwise.

well you did you said "so many fail safe systems we didn't have back then".

Name one fail safe system that works for loss of control?

cause as yet we've still not made one.

"fail safe" is pretty difficult in these situations heck i cant even think how you can possibly make a rocket fail safe, safer sure but safe is just impossible.

Flibster · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:50

Closest you can get is a Ballistic Parachute, but even those have major limitations.

Looks like VSS Enterprise broke up in the air according to these images. Ballistic Parachute won't help there.

Burt Rutan, designer of SpaceShipOne has said about the safety of the aircraft:

This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it'll correct. This is designed to be at least as safe as the early airliners in the 1920s...Don’t believe anyone that tells you that the safety will be the same as a modern airliner, which has been around for 70 years.

adam98150 · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:52

How many people do you reckon cancelled their bookings when this happened?

DJMK4 · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:52

Just after it was released? My money is on some form of seal damage or leak when they fired up the rocket

Jokester · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:54

Rocket fired for about 15s before it exploded according to witness reports.

DJMK4 · 31 Oct 2014 at 22:58

Jokester said:
Rocket fired for about 15s before it exploded according to witness reports.

Still could be a seal or leak. Remember the shuttle which throttled up?

Any type of problem which may have come under multiple stresses through previous flights, could only take one more 15 second burst of stress then there it goes.

Your right though does appear to have some rocket activity

batsy · 31 Oct 2014 at 23:33

OhEsEcks said:
Was it a Russian motor?

nvm

Rotty · 1 Nov 2014 at 00:17

Glaucus · 1 Nov 2014 at 02:37

Rip.

What a shame as they hadn't had many issues in flight before. Obviously they had the three deaths when a rocket exploded in the test stand.

Third Opinion · 1 Nov 2014 at 02:57

I wonder if the project will be quietly shelved like the deep sea sub they spent so long developing?

A small imperfection in the glass dome has seen the project shelved indefinitely.

Tefal · 1 Nov 2014 at 03:09

Flibster said:
Closest you can get is a Ballistic Parachute, but even those have major limitations.

and those are a safety device not a fail safe.

A fail safe is a very different thing to a safety device.

a fuse is a fail safe, things go wrong it breaks but it breaks in a way that renders everything safe.

a parachute is a safety feature it hopefully makes the dangerous failure more survivable.

ubersonic · 1 Nov 2014 at 03:41

Still doing much better than the USA or Russia did in their early days.

Cosimo · 1 Nov 2014 at 08:08

Such a terrible thing to happen.

RIP

Statement from Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely.

The Virgin Galactic team is cooperating with our partners at Scaled Composites and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as local authorities. We understand that the NTSB is scheduled to arrive in Mojave tomorrow morning (Saturday Nov. 1) to commence their investigation, which is expected to last several days.

Local authorities have confirmed that one of the two Scaled Composites pilots died during the accident. The other pilot parachuted to the ground and is being treated at a local hospital. All of us at Virgin Galactic are deeply saddened by today’s events. Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those affected by this accident.

George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, provided the following statement:

“Our primary thoughts at this moment are with the crew and family, and we’re doing everything we can for them now. I’d like to recognize the work of the first responders who we work with in the Antelope Valley for their efforts on behalf of the team. We’re also thinking of the team members that we have at the companies that have been working on this program.

Space is hard and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today. We’re going to get through it. The future rests in many ways on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to the team, that has been working so hard on this endeavour, to understand this and to move forward. And that is what we’ll do.”

Sir Richard Branson is on his way to Mojave and is expected to arrive by early Saturday morning.

We understand your interest in additional information. It is our understanding that there will be another press conference over the weekend at the Mojave Air & Space Port. We will post any logistical details as they become available, and we will provide another update from Virgin Galactic at that time in conjunction with the press briefing.

All press enquiries regarding todays test flight incident should be forwarded to: [email protected]

MrKeeno · 1 Nov 2014 at 09:52

Maybe a silly question, is there an ejector seat on the plane or did the guy have to jump out as it broke apart? Anyone know?

sigma · 1 Nov 2014 at 10:02

Tragic but honourable way to go. A true hero.

Jokester · 1 Nov 2014 at 10:07

MrKeeno said:
Maybe a silly question, is there an ejector seat on the plane or did the guy have to jump out as it broke apart? Anyone know?

As far as I'm aware there's no ejector seats, it wouldn't be save because of the speeds it does. Plus you would a spacesuit effectively for air.

this_is_gav · 1 Nov 2014 at 10:42

Tefal said:
well you did you said "so many fail safe systems we didn't have back then".

Name one fail safe system that works for loss of control?

cause as yet we've still not made one.

"fail safe" is pretty difficult in these situations heck i cant even think how you can possibly make a rocket fail safe, safer sure but safe is just impossible.

I meant the sensors and testing and computer simulation power to minimise the chance of a loss of control in the first place. Precaution measures they didn't have access to, or minimal access to, which would have limited the number of incidents in the early push.