[BIG STORY] Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Crashes: Everything You Should Know
A Virgin Galactic spacecraft intended to carry tourists crashed in the Mojave desert due to an “in-flight anomaly” during a test flight Friday, killing one person, the company said.
By Sadho Ram — 01 Nov 2014, 05:37 AM — Updated about 10 years ago
On late Friday, 31 October, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo — a space plane that Richard Branson's company was hoping will take tourists up into space next year — exploded and crashed during a test flight, killing one pilot while seriously injuring the other
Virgin Galactic's experimental commercial spaceflight vehicle crashed after experiencing an "in-flight anomaly" during a test flight on Friday. California Highway Patrol said there is one fatality and one major injury. With two pilots on board, SpaceShipTwo took off at 12:20 p.m. ET from Mojave, California in a powered test flight that the company called a "Halloween treat."
mashable.com
Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo (the small plane held at the center of the larger WhiteKnightTwo) crashed today, killing one pilot.
Image via vox-cdn.comAs part of tests carried out by Scaled Composites, a partner company of Virgin, SpaceShipTwo was carried up to 50,000 feet by WhiteKnightTwo (the larger-multi engined plane in the photo above), then released for a powered test flight. Two minutes after it was released and its rocket motor ignited, the plane exploded and broke apart.
vox.com
Parts of the spacecraft were scattered over a large area of the desert. Executives with Scaled Composites, which operates the spacecraft, and with Virgin Galactic, refused to speculate as to possible causes of the accident.
wired.com
So, what is Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo?
SpaceShipTwo is the second-stage launch vehicle for Virgin Galactic’s space flight program. It is designed to disconnect from the propeller-engined WhiteKnightTwo (WK2) craft and ascend to space under rocket power, then returns to earth.
theguardian.com
The plane would be carried up to 50,000 feet by WhiteKnightTwo, which is essentially a standard jet, then released, allowing the rocket to fire and push the craft upward at a speed of nearly 2500 miles per hour. Virgin Galactic has been in the process of developing the technology that might make this possible for several years.
vox.com
On the 10th of January 2014, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo completed its third powered flight, breaking the speed of sound in an important test flight. Watch:
What went wrong with this test flight?
Virgin Galactic said that SpaceShipTwo was powered by a fuel mix that had not previously been used in flight, although it had been tested extensively on the ground. The company was unable to say whether the change to the fuel mix offered an explanation for the accident, which happened just before 11am local time.
theguardian.com
This flight was also the first powered flight for SpaceShipTwo in more than nine months, though the plane had been put through an unpowered "glide" drop earlier this month.
vox.com
Will Virgin SpaceShipTwo crash set back space tourism?
It goes without saying that the crash is a tragedy for all those involved. Nothing is more significant than the loss of life. Everyone on the project was committed to creating a startling new venture - a new era of "affordable" space travel. Some of the best minds in the business had been attracted to work on SpaceShipTwo. The accident is a particular blow, of course, for Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson, whose dream this was, and who has sunk a large amount of his own money into trying to make it happen.
Already, people are questioning the future of the project. But it is really too early for that. Certainly, any Virgin Galactic commercial service will be further delayed. Whether that delay is indefinite will depend in large part on the outcome of the investigation. "Space is hard and today was a tough day," commented Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides in a news conference following the accident.
It should be said there are other ventures out there aiming to push the frontiers of commercial spaceflight, and many of them also are looking to use rocket planes. They will no doubt pause for reflection and absorb the lessons learned, but it is doubtful they will be deterred.
What is space tourism?
Space tourism, in essence, is putting paying customers into space. At this point, only seven people have actually gone into space as tourists. Between 2001 and 2009, the Space Adventures company brokered deals between seven multi-millionaires and the Russian space agency, sending them to the International Space Station on Russian Soyuz rockets for a week or two, at a cost of $20 to $40 million each. These flights have temporarily been put on hold, partly because the retirement of the Space Shuttle means NASA will pay to reserve those spots for American astronauts.
vox.com
Has anyone bought tickets for SpaceShipTwo?
Currently, there's a waiting list of more than 700 people who have paid $250,000 each for a flight on SpaceShipTwo, and the company's latest plans had called for commercial flights to begin as soon as February or March 2015.
vox.com
Some noteworthy ticket holders include Stephen Hawking, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Katy Perry.
What does this accident mean for private spaceflight?
It's hard to say the exact consequences of this accident, but the death of a pilot almost certainly means that Virgin's plans to begin taking tourists up to space by the spring will be delayed. On a broader level, this type of event is an important reminder. Private spaceflight may be a quickly emerging field, but launching any sort of object from Earth's surface into space is an inherently difficult endeavor. Lots of people have previously lost their lives as part of the space exploration effort, and despite recent successes, space flight is still not a routine, completely safe technology.
vox.com