BBC News reports - 'In-flight anomaly' on Virgin SpaceShipTwo
Virgin Galactic says that its SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft has suffered an "in-flight anomaly".
The craft was being tested in the Mojave Desert region of California. Virgin Galactic said it would issue a fuller statement shortly.
Local police said they were responding to reports of a crash in Cantil.
More information available from Kern Golden Empire and FOX 4 NEWS on Twitter.
Update - The Associated Press reported one fatality and one major injury from the accident, citing California Highway Patrol.
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Breaking news - Virgin SpaceShipTwo Crash
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @06:53PM
from the virgin-not-so-mobile dept
(Score: 2) by Blackmoore on Friday October 31 2014, @06:56PM
nah, that was mobile. way too mobile.
(Score: 2) by Tork on Friday October 31 2014, @07:16PM
🏳️🌈 Proud Ally 🏳️🌈
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday October 31 2014, @07:37PM
Two in a week?
State actor.
I vote for the blue star. But it could be the yellow star...
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday October 31 2014, @07:40PM
Jews? Perhaps I'm missing the point.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday October 31 2014, @08:05PM
Israel or China
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday October 31 2014, @09:19PM
Chisrael
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday October 31 2014, @09:32PM
Great .sig
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 1) by JNCF on Friday October 31 2014, @11:36PM
I don't think that accepting state aid (under certain circumstances) was actually against Ayn Rand's personal philosophies. My understanding is that she viewed the tax-paying citizen as being robbed by the state, and that if the citizen being robbed has some recourse by which they can get a portion of their stolen assets back they would be totally justified in doing so. Since she had been paying into those programs against her will, she viewed it as her right to pull back out as much as she paid in.
So I'm not sold on the sig, but fuck Ayn Rand anyway.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @07:04AM
People do all sorts of mental gymnastics in order to justify their actions and not look like hypocrites.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 02 2014, @02:53AM
The argument that people who wish to see a system improved shouldn't participate in the existing system is silly. I, for example, am in favor of eliminating the electoral college, but I don't think everyone who agrees with me should cease voting in the popular election. I don't like the health care tax being used to prop up a private health care system, but I don't think people should pass on health care until the government changes enough to change it to something I like better.
For that matter, I think a flat state tax should replace the federal income tax system, but I don't think my state or any other should refuse the federal money that is returned to them as federal aid.
There is a big difference between saying I shouldn't steal your money and saying that you shouldn't accept any of it that I offer back to you. It isn't "mental gymnastics," it is just being reasonable. It is really the difference between voting for change and civil war.
(Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday November 01 2014, @05:25AM
China is the red star, but then so is Russia.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Saturday November 01 2014, @05:20PM
Look at the flag.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_China#mediaviewer/File:Flag_of_the_People's_Republic_of_China.svg [wikipedia.org]
Like the Huang He river...
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 2) by JNCF on Saturday November 01 2014, @12:11AM
...or maybe just coincidence?
Sometimes I worry that my brain brings up too many false positives when searching the world for possible conspiracies, but at least my criteria aren't "holy shit, something happened twice in the same week! I wonder if we should blame the Chinks or the Jews..."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:08PM
Do you think he was on contract or pay as you go?
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday October 31 2014, @08:35PM
It gives new meaning to the term "temporary employee."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @07:08AM
Too soon to start recycling the old Challenger jokes? "What was the last thing they said to their spouse that morning? You feed the kids, I'll feed the fish."
Black humor is actually a good coping method.
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Friday October 31 2014, @07:06PM
Virgin put out a statement on twitter:
UPDATE:Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of #SpaceShipTwo earlier today. (1 of 4)
During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely. (2 of 4)
Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. (3 of 4)
We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP. (4 of 4)
Based on what I've heard, 2 people were on board. Sounds like one didn't make it and the other is being airlifted to a hospital. Nothing confirmed officially of course, just eyewitness reports.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday October 31 2014, @07:12PM
Heck of an "anomaly".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-29857182 [bbc.co.uk]
At least one person is dead and another injured after Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism craft crashed in a California desert, the California Highway Patrol has said.
The craft was undergoing manned testing when it experienced what the company described as "a serious anomaly".
Television images shot from a helicopter showed what appeared to be wreckage bearing the Virgin logo.
SpaceShipTwo is carried aloft by a jet, then launched into sub-orbit.
In a statement, Virgin Galactic said the "vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo".
The jet, known as White Knight 2, has landed safely.
The firm has been a front-runner in the nascent space-tourism industry and its chief said earlier in October it expected to see the craft make it to sub-orbital space within a few months
I guess this kills it for at least 5 years :(
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:15AM
So much for the invisible hand, huh?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 01 2014, @01:19PM
Heck of an "anomaly".
Well, Challenger was a "major malfunction"... (as spoken by the person reading off telemetry in RT)
(Score: 3, Informative) by tonyPick on Friday October 31 2014, @07:15PM
There's a bit more over at Spacenews [spacenews.com]
Eyewitnesses reports indicate the vehicle broke apart in flight shortly after igniting its rocket motor. Kern County Fire Department responded to reports of a plane crash, believed to be SpaceShipTwo, north of Mojave. One pilot was being transported to a local hospital, according to police scanner reports.
(Score: 2) by Sir Finkus on Friday October 31 2014, @07:17PM
Yeah, CHP has also confirmed the reports, but hadn't when I posted.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:31PM
They were testing a new type of fuel. My money says that's where the initial problem was, perhaps some part wasn't quite strong enough to handle the extra heat or power from the experimental fuel (which had not failed in ground tests).
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @07:33PM
> airlifted to a hospital
Yeah, just get right back up on that horse.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Friday October 31 2014, @07:58PM
Hopefully not airlifted in a rocket.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday October 31 2014, @09:32PM
I wonder why haven't they send it the reserve rocket for the survivor? You know...? If at first you don't succeed... aso
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by isostatic on Friday October 31 2014, @07:10PM
I bet it's aliens. Or something disapointing and delaying.
It's been a decade since SSO graced the skies. That's longer than it took from mankind first putting a man in orbit to putting a man on the moon, and Scaled have managed to take a 3 seater sub orbital craft and make it into a seven seater sub orbital craft.
To be fair, it is the same time it took from the first 60 yard flights by the wright brothers to the first scheduled flight.
I'm not sure why they couldn't have flown SSO and copies for the last ten years while the "swanky" version was being built?
(Score: 2) by SlimmPickens on Friday October 31 2014, @07:49PM
I'm not sure why they couldn't have flown SSO and copies for the last ten years while the "swanky" version was being built?
This crash is why. Apollo had numerous safety issues and all the astronauts knew it, it's amazing the mortality rate for that program is so low. Taking those sorts of risks with commercial customers just isn't cool these days.
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Friday October 31 2014, @08:00PM
Well they have a slightly smaller budget to work with here.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Friday October 31 2014, @07:19PM
Thanks for taking the Orbital Sciences explosion feedback on board and getting this up so quickly
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Friday October 31 2014, @07:26PM
Man, things aren't going well for the commercial space industry. Two disasters in just one week.
But that is the unfortunate part of cutting edge engineering, failure. You just have to push through it.
(Score: 2) by Jeremiah Cornelius on Friday October 31 2014, @07:39PM
That's the end of the season, for Star Trek fans...
You're betting on the pantomime horse...
(Score: 4, Insightful) by mendax on Friday October 31 2014, @07:51PM
Any new and newish technology that is going to push the envelope is going to have this problem and people are going to die as a result.
For example, the first passenger jet, the De Havilland Comet [wikipedia.org] suffered two crashes with dozens of passenger fatalities because of unforeseen metal fatigue issues that caused decompression and inflight disintegration. Then, after Boeing introduced the 707 [wikipedia.org] there were several crashes over the years due to pilot error and structural problems and even one lightning strike. The 747, by contrast, had a much better safety record because Boeing applied what it had learned from building the 707 and it's relatives, the 720, 727, and 737.
I'm not saying that this crash is not bad news. It's bad news, but the reason why fatal air crashes are quite rare today, compared to 40 to 60 years ago, is because we learn from them. No doubt Virgin will learn a lot from this crash. It's unfortunately that one of the pilots was killed but at least it is a death that will have some meaning in the future.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fliptop on Saturday November 01 2014, @03:00AM
Heck, years before that the Germans were trying to get the world first rocket-powered aircraft [acepilots.com] perfected enough to fly in combat, even though they were a little late to the party. Those things ran on basically hexane and peroxide and there were incidents where they exploded while refueling. On the ground. That sucks.
Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by mcgrew on Saturday November 01 2014, @02:41PM
Military aircraft, too. When I was in the USAF and stationed at Dover, the C5-A was brand new, at the time the world's largest cargo plane. A week didn't go by that they didn't have to foam a runway because the landing gear wouldn't come down, and those giant engines kept falling off.
And these are people with bottomless pockets.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 2) by mendax on Saturday November 01 2014, @06:30PM
Even before the C-5A, when the B-29 was in production they had some problems with the engines. They used large amounts of magnesium in their construction and had a tendency to overheat and catch fire in flight.
Oh, and while I mentioned the Boeing 707, the problems Boeing has had with the 787 Dreamliner which has gotten so much publicity over the last couple years are simply a manifestation of pushing the edge of the envelope. The 787 is revolutionary in many ways and it's no surprise that some things are not working as expected. But Boeing has addressed those problems, learned from them, and the planes are doing well now. Notice that no 787 crashed because of these bugs, unlike the early 707's.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by turgid on Friday October 31 2014, @07:52PM
This is tragic for the people involved, and the families and friends of the victims.
It is very sad indeed when people are injured or lose their lives going about their business, earning a living. Having said that, these people were trying something new and exciting and the unexpected is inevitable to a certain extent.
Let's give these people the credit they deserve for taking the personal risks that the human race needs to advance.
Although this is a commercial space tourism enterprise with relatively modest initial goals, the technological developments that are made are not trivial and pave the way for greater things.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by mendax on Friday October 31 2014, @08:15PM
In case you want to read about it [nytimes.com] there.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @08:17PM
I think straping a big plastic rocket engine to your ass qualifies you to be a space hero. This is new technology; not regurgitated NASA tech. These people are breaking new ground. "God speed" guys, in your plastic fantastic spaceship! RIP friend.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 31 2014, @09:25PM
the Russians must be beaten... at all cost!