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38 postsVirgin Galactic is a space tourism company founded by Richard Branson. Galactic was the first private company to send a vehicle, SpaceShipOne, to a height of 100km, wining the Ansari X prize. On October 31, 2014 SpaceShipTwo crashed in the Mojave desert killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.
SpaceShip One completes its first flight into space, the first of the two flights needed within a week for the $10 million Ansari X Prize for commercial spacecraft. It completes several rolls at the top of its trajectory, which aren’t in the flight plan, and the engine shuts down early, but the spaceship lands safely. Pilot Mike Melvill:
That was a really good ride. I feel like I nailed it.
Video shows the spacecraft’s flight from release from the White Knight launch aircraft, climbs vertically and makes several unplanned barrel rolls, before the engine shuts out early. The spaceship completes its mission and returns to earth safely.
SpaceShipOne makes its second flight into space five days after the first. This time it reaches altitude of 112 km (367,442 feet) compared with 102.9 km on the first voyage. Achieving two space flights within a week, it wins the $10m Ansari X prize for privately built spaceships offered by the X Prize Foundation of St. Louis, Missouri. The prize also requires it to achieve altitudes above 100 km (62 miles) on both flights. Pilot Brian Binnie ignites the hybrid rocket motor a few seconds after SpaceShipOne is released from the White Knight carrier plane somewhere above 46,000 feet, and after the top altitude is confirmed by radar, it glides back to earth and lands like a regular airplane, touching down at 11:14 a.m. Eastern.
Video shows highlights of the flight to 367,442 feet, including the takeoff with White Knight at the Mojave Space Port, the drop and engine ignition above 46,000 feet, and the touchdown. Pilot Brian Binnie:
We might have gotten to 370,000 feet if my mother-in-law hadn’t spilled about a pound of coffee on me this morning. A little accident added to the drama of the day.
Three workers at the Mojave Space Port are killed and two others are severely injured as a failure occurs during a test of a nitrous oxide system. A mechanic working several hundred yards from the explosion says it was ‘louder than a sonic boom’. The workers aren’t identified but relatives of 45-year-old Scaled Composites employee Charles ‘Glen’ May say they have been notified by the company that he has died in the accident. Rutan says the test of the NOS propellant system – the ‘laughing gas’ used in hot-rods to boost engine power and in dentists’ offices as anaesthetic – didn’t include any sparking, and SpaceShipTwo’s rocket engine wasn’t fired.
We felt it was completely safe. We had done a lot of these [tests] with SpaceShip One.
Why the accident occurred:
We just don’t know.
Two of the workers died at the scene of the accident, while the third died at hospital following surgery. The injured workers – two critical and one with serious injuries – suffered multiple shrapnel wounds. Several other Scaled employees escaped injury from the explosion.
Video shows highlights of the flight including takeoff with WhiteKnightTwo from Movaje Space Port, the drop from the carrier plane around 46,000 feet, and the 16-second test burn that powers it to Mach 1.2 and 56,000 feet.
SpaceShipTwo reaches a speed of Mach 1.43 and successfully completes all its test objectives in the second flight under its own power. WhiteKnightTwo drops SpaceShipTwo at 46,000 feet and a 20-second burn pushes the space craft to a maximum altitude of 69,000 feet. During flight, it tests supersonic aerodynamics and the feather mechanism that uses wing movements to create air resistance that slow it down during descent. Branson:
We couldn’t be more delighted to have another major supersonic milestone under our belts as we move toward a 2014 start of commercial service
Video from an onboard camera on the tail shows the spaceship’s second powered flight, including the drop from the carrier plane and initial descent after the test burn of the rocket engine, as the pilots apparently control strong lateral forces to keep it on a straight trajectory.
Video shows highlights of the second flight under SpaceShipTwo’s own power including the drop from the carrier aircraft and 20-second test burn.
Branson announces that Virgin Galactic is accepting Bitcoin:
The first ticket we sold was actually today was to a stewardess in Hawaii who made quite a a lot of money by getting into Bitcoin early on.
The company transferred the ticket price into dollars:
So there’s a fixed price … [and] we can actually pay her money back, if she changes her mind about going to space in a few months.
If Virgin Galactic didn’t have a refund policy, it might be willing to conduct a pure Bitcoin transaction.
SpaceShipTwo reaches its highest altitude yet, around 71,000 feet. Galactic chief pilot David Mackay:
She flew brilliantly. All the tests went really well and generated vital data that will be used to further fine-tune our operations.
Footage shows pre-takeoff inspection and the takeoff with WhiteKnightTwo, the drop and 20-second test burn that powers SpaceShipTwo to 71,000 feet, and the descent and landing.
Branson confirms that Virgin Galactic has made several sales to customers paying with Bitcoin:
There are a lot of people who’ve made lots of money out of Bitcoin, we’ll accept their money and send them to space. We’ve had six or seven space tickets sold already.
He has invested in Bitcoin and supports the idea of a global currency:
I suspect if it’s not Bitcoin somebody like Square will be the people who come up with that currency.
Branson hopes that Virgin Galactic will be ready for launch by early next year. Despite of the fact that the deadline has been delayed for close to seven years, the company’s developers are giving safety priority over deadlines. CEO George Whitesides:
Customers are eager to fly, but they know we’ll fly them when we feel ready. Obviously we want to do it as quickly as possible, but we don’t want to rush it.
Branson says on NBC’s “Today” show:
We’re now going through the final testing stages. We’ll be doing at least one flight into space before the end of the year. I’ll be going up with my son Sam ‘early-ish’ in the new year.
Branson tells CNN that Galactic’s spaceship technology can be used for rapid air travel:
We’re building spaceships and we’ll initially be sending them into space. And then in time we’ll be manufacturing spaceships that go tremendous speeds and we’ll be transporting people around the world in spaceships at speeds that make Concorde look quite slow … ‘Fast’, if we can pull it off, is 18-and-a-half thousand miles an hour, which means that anywhere in the world you want to go, you get there in half an hour.
SpaceShipTwo is scheduled to test a new plastic-based rocket fuel for the first time, in its first powered flight in nine months. Engineers were switching out the previous engine, which burned rubber-based fuel. Scaled Composites is reported to have previously experienced problems with the rocket on the ground. The new motor is intended to push SpaceShip Two five times higher than it had ever flown before—to the edge of space 62 miles above the Earth. Maximum speed iss expected to reach about 2,500 miles an hour during its ascent.
Virgin Galactic reports a test flight of SpaceShipTwo, launched a 9:19am by its partner Scaled Composites, led to the “loss of the vehicle” after a “serious anomaly”.
#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming.
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
Witnesses reported seeing the aircraft explode in flight. Doug Messier, a blogger who runs the website Parabolic Arc, which reports on space news, witnesses the crash from Jawbone Station, which is on a ridge overlooking the desert where the craft crashed.
We saw the twin contrails of WhiteKnightTwo overhead. They do that prior to a drop. SpaceShipTwo dropped. From what I could tell, motor fired and then stopped then fired again. I think that’s what happened. [It appeared that SpaceShipTwo] broke apart and started coming down in pieces over the desert. We started seeing clouds of dirt where pieces of the ship came down. One after another. At least three. Debris from the ship was scattered all over the road.
The WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, which carries the SpaceShipTwo, lands safely.
A California Highway Patrol spokesperson said two people were found near the crash in the desert north of California City and east of Mojave. One of the individuals had parachuted out of the aircraft, and another was located near the scene as well. The FAA:
Just after 10 a.m. PDT today, ground controllers at the Mojave Spaceport lost contact with SpaceShipTwo, an experimental space flight vehicle. The incident occurred over the Mojave Desert shortly after the space flight vehicle separated from WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle that carried it aloft. Two crew members were on board SpaceShipTwo at the time of the incident. WhiteKnightTwo remained airborne after the incident. The FAA is investigating.
Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.
— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) October 31, 2014
NASA sends its condolences to Virgin Galactic:
While not a NASA mission, the pain of this tragedy will be felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploration. Space flight is incredibly difficult, and we commend the passion of all in the space community who take on risk to push the boundaries of human achievement.
Musk tweets a statement:
Deepest sympathies to the families of the pilots and the Virgin Galactic team
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2014
