An explosion during a test of rocket engine compenents by SpaceShipTwo builder Scaled Composites claimed the lives of three Scaled employees and seriously injured three others yesterday, according to various reports.
This is sure to set back the SpaceShipTwo program, and casts a pall on the entire industry.
Those of us in and around the commercial space industry have known from day one that deaths were inevitable during the opening of the final frontier, but that doesn't make it any easier to take.
My heart goes out to the good people at Scaled Composites and their families. I pray for a speedy recovery for those injured, and I offer that those who who died did not do so in vain. They were working to uplift all of humanity, and I very deeply appreciate their sacrifice. They are my heroes.
--Update at 2:12 p.m. ET--
We're doing updates on the Popular Science website at www.popsci.com as more information becomes available.
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7 comments:
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the Scaled Composites accident clearly demonstrates that private space companies still are in the "space amateurs"/non professional stage (add this to the recent doubts about the COTS program)
that occurrence will not stop the development of the SS2 but ONLY because the owner of that company (now) is a giant (and expert) aerospace company
however, the SC accident could reduce the peoples/investors' trust about these small/hobby NewSpace companies
gm
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gm,
So NASA, ESA, the Russian Space program, JAXA, and all of the other government operated programs have no accidents and no fatalities in thier operations as they are 'Space Professionals'?
The only thing that the new space companies and groups don't have going for them is a large pool of cash already committed like NASA does.
After the Apollo 1 accident, how close did NASA come to shutting down. Despite the efforts of some politicians not very--too much cash was spent, too must cash was scheduled to be spent.
my condolences go to the friends and colleagues of Glenn May.
All of the people in this business have to be realistic that the path to more affordable access to orbit is going to be built with cash, sweat and blood.
Nothing worthwhile or profitable in human endeavors ever is.
Jeffrey,
we must compare the dimension of space agency and newspace companies and the way the latter work
the space agencies work about rockets from '50s, have had thousands projects and develped (small, mid and GIANT) rockets in the early days when everything was "experimental" (then, very dangerous)
also, the space agencies have had several thousands employees in their story, so, a few death is a small percentage
now we are talking of a few newspace companies, from a few years, with a few employees and small projects, then, three dead and three injured seem too much compared with the small dimensions of (both) companies and projects
also, the fact that this accident happened to one of the most "professional" newspace company (with SpaceX) suggest us to ask: "what did happens to the smaller and less professional ones?"
to-day, some newspace companies looks like hobbyists that goes to a desert place near their home to launch a radio-control scale-model rocket... :)
last, the SC acciden could reduce the peoples/investors' trust in newspace companies and common peoples' suborbital flights since SC is a LEADER, the company that launched the SS1 and is building the (commercial) SS2
jeffrey,
Yes, NASA had fatalities on Apollo 1. But after the accident, they stopped to reflect on why it happened and realized that they were moving too fast and their designs weren't up to the job. They then fixed these problems before continuing.
The problem with Scaled Composites is that they haven't learned the lessons that NASA and the flight test community has paid for with the lives of 17 astronauts and many more test pilots over the years. I went to a presentation by Brian Binnie where he had a slide titled "Safety is for Sissies". He later went on to ridicule the NASA space suits worn by the astronauts during launch. Never mind that three cosmonauts died on the Soyuz 11 mission in 1971 because they weren't wearing pressure suits when their capsule depressurized. He also ridiculed the cost and complexity of the outward opening Space Shuttle crew hatch when compared to the simple SS1 design. Never mind the three astronauts of Apollo 1 that couldn't get out of their burning capsule because their simple door opened inwards and had an opening mechanism that took minutes to open.
Scaled Composites has been pushing the limits of safety in both their designs and practices. When I heard the news of this accident, I was surprised only in that it occurred on the ground. I expected that Scaled Composites' rocket activities would eventually kill somebody. Just not this way.
As long as Scaled Composites continues to hold to their practices despite all that has been learned by the flight test community over the past 60+ years, you'll see more deaths.
Also, the notion that deaths are to be expected and/or accepted in the development of private space launch services is severely misguided.
A few things. First off, refering to Scaled as space amatuers is a comment that should be left to people that have been in a position to cast such a judgment. I personally find it quite offensive. Anyone who has not been employed by SC has no idea the amount of work, engineering and preparation that goes into the things that we build, test and fly. We are not amateurs, in fact we are quite professional.
"As long as Scaled Composites continues to hold to their practices despite all that has been learned by the flight test community over the past 60+ years, you'll see more deaths"
This statement is crap for a couple of reasons. First off, the thought that holding to "our practices" puts people in danger is a pipe dream. Nothing is more important to Mr. Rutan and his team than safety. Take risks yes, but take risks that you can manage.
Next, we have learned everything that the flight test community has presented up to this point in time. However, the ground that is being covered now is new territory. No one has ever built a hybrid rocket motor of the size that we are working with. Not everything is known about this rocket system. We are working on it.
To imply that it is our methods, or some known safety issue that we just didnt care to worry about that killed my co-workers and friends is asinine.
Here at Scaled we are a family and we protect each other like a family.
Finally unless you work where I work you have no clue as to the nature of our designs or practices with regard to pushing the limits of safety or anything else. I would appreciate it if in the future you would bite your tounge, unless you have some direct experiance with the subject matter with which you are casting your judgment.
I appreciate those of you offering your prayers and thoughts, for those of my family that are fallen, injured and or grieving.
See you all at 328KF
"I would appreciate it if in the future you would bite your tounge, unless you have some direct experiance with the subject matter with which you are casting your judgment."
On the first practice launch of SS-1, the primary instruments display went blank upon ignition of the engine. The test pilot continued the flight for the duration of the engine burn. He could not see the horizon out of his side windows, but managed to keep the nose from yawing off of vertical by equalizing the relative brightness of light in the side windows. The instrumentation display came back once the engine was shut down. Any responsible flight test organization would have had a mission rule to abort the flight if the primary instrumentation failed. If you look at historical flight test incidents, most of them aren't caused by a single failure, but a chain of small failures that result in a loss of the vehicle. For example: If the failure of the instrumentation was not due to the potentiometer design, but it had failed completely, and if something else were to have happened, such as the spacecraft entering a spin, the pilot might not have enough information to recover.
On the first X-Prize flight of SS-1 (of which I personally witnessed), the vehicle began to roll uncommanded during the powered portion of flight. Despite the steadily increasing roll rate, the pilot continued the engine burn to completion. Uncommanded rolling of this nature is not normal, and a responsible flight test organization would have aborted the flight at this point. The only reason I can see for not shutting down the engine is if it was felt that doing so would make the situation worse. Having heard the pilot's description of the flight, he did not indicate that that was what he was thinking at the time. Again, little things that add up to a big problem. When he (and the control room) made the decision to continue, did he know that he had enough RCS propellant to arrest the roll rate? Did he know that the vehicle structure could withstand the centripetal acceleration? What if something else on the vehicle failed? Could he have dealt with that second failure with the high roll rate?
On Gemini 8, the Orbit Attitude and Maneuvering System (OAMS) on the Gemini capsule failed, causing the vehicle to spin up to a very high rate and almost causing the two astronauts to pass out. Had Neil Armstrong decided not to shut down the OAMS (effectively aborting the mission), thinking he could arrest the spin somehow, they would have been the first Americans to die in space.
In both of these SS-1 flights, the flight crew and control room demonstrated a willingness to push the limits of safety to achieve success. You need to take risks in this line of business, but it's my opinion that Scaled pushes it too far. These are the reasons why I said earlier that I said "When I heard the news of this accident, I was surprised only in that it occurred on the ground"
Those who criticise scaled composites family should get a life! Burt Rutan and his team are absolutely professional, diligent caring people. Critics who get mileage out of their harsh words need to be hung, drawn and quartered for their disrespectful, ignorant prattle. Burt Rutan is leading us into the fabulous future of affordable space travel.....and who knows what else in the times to come. Those who hide behind their safe little desks, scared of the world, need to grow up and get real.Tragedies happen, very sadly, but we have no right to shoot pioneers down.....one tragedy in 30 years, and the morons want blood...sick, sick, sick.
All the very best for Burt and his amazing vision.....I can't wait to see the well deserved praise he will no doubt be recieving when hundreds of people have had the benefit of his absolutely amazing VISION!
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