Virgin Galactic Spaceship has crashed in the Mojave Desert...
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Uh...Paul in Plano.
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Not to mention 4 people died yesterday just across the airport from my work... 1 pilot crashed into a flight sim building and 3 additional people *in* a simulator perished. A truly horrific accident.
quote:It's like ten thousand spoons when all you need is a knife
Not to mention 4 people died yesterday just across the airport from my work... 1 pilot crashed into a flight sim building and 3 additional people *in* a simulator perished. A truly horrific accident.
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What caused the anomaly?
For now, the rocket motor is the prime suspect.
The motor's fuel and plumbing went through significant alterations since the previous rocket-powered flight in January. However, Kevin Mickey the president of Scaled Composites, the Mojave-based company that has been developing and testing SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic pointed out that the new propulsion system went through extensive on-the-ground testing in advance of Friday's flight.
Another concern has to do with the nitrous oxide that interacts with the fuel to generate the rocket power. Nitrous oxide, also known as "laughing gas," is usually considered nontoxic. But three workers at Scaled Composites were killed on the ground in 2007 when a tank of nitrous oxide exploded.
In the wake of that 2007 blast, some critics voiced concerns about the hybrid rocket motor that was being being developed for SpaceShipTwo and said Virgin Galactic should have gone with a more traditional liquid-fueled rocket engine instead. That debate is now likely to get more attention.
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One dead one injured?
Some dude was lucky.