SpaceShipTwo Crash

[Mr Shifty]

There are reports that SS2 suffered an in-flight anomaly during a test flight just now. Twitter reports pilots on chutes, one recovered, one still outstanding.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-suffers-flight-anomaly-n238376

Edited November 1, 2014 by Mr Shifty

[Karriz]

Uh oh, that's pretty bad, I hope the other pilot is fine. This has been a bad week for private space industry for sure.

[Frida Space]

The spacecraft took off at 9:19 a.m. PDT (12:19 p.m. EDT; 1619 GMT) from the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The takeoff was delayed more than three hours to wait for bad weather to clear the area.

I confirm. I'm following the story on Twitter too (@b0yle)

[Hydrazine_Soup]

I just saw it on twitter

Edited March 5, 2020 by Hydrazine_Soup

[Red Iron Crown]

Man I hope the crew bailed out OK. Reports of chutes being spotted are promising.

[Frida Space]

Scanner traffic from local first responders indicates wreckage from a crashed aircraft in the area. Reports say parachutes were spotted in the air.

[Kryten]

One person has serious neck injuries, one is dead. There may or may not have been a third person; if there was, they haven't found them yet. SS2 itself is a debris field.

[sal_vager]

Can you please post your source Kryten.

[Dkmdlb]

I hope that's not true. Do you have a source?

[Frida Space]

The source of SS2's crash: http://spaceflightnow.com/2014/10/31/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-suffers-anomaly-during-test-flight/

However, it doesn't speak of injuries/deaths yet.

[Mr Shifty]

I'll wait for official reports. Hard to get reliable information from the twitter feed; one bit of speculation can turn into seeming fact after 400 people retweet it.

[PakledHostage]

A Google search revealed one preliminary media report so far from the Associated Press: Virgin Galactic reports problem during rocket-powered flight of SpaceShipTwo

[Kryten]

Can you please post your source Kryten.

People reposing county police scanner reports here; too many old members posting the same stuff for there to be any doubt, I'm afraid.

We now have confirmation of a third person; @spacecom (Doug Messier, extremely reliable) saw somebody still strapped in their seat, so that must have been the second parachutist. Unclear if they're the person already reported as dead, or if they're still to be found.

[Mr Shifty]

VG just released a statement saying the status of the pilots is unknown:

http://www.virgingalactic.com/news/item/statement-from-virgin-galactic/

Virgin Galactic’s partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle. Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. We will work closely with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of the accident and provide updates as soon as we are able to do so.

[VirtualCLD]

Uh oh, I hope they're wrong, but one news station is reporting one fatality based on scanner traffic:

http://www.kerngoldenempire.com/news/local/story/d/story/spaceshiptwo-crashes-shortly-after-mojave-test-fli/11401/64VdLqg21EWpK1vuptvTsg

Official press conference is soon, so I hope there will be some good news instead.

Edited October 31, 2014 by VirtualCLD

[Red Iron Crown]

Press conference at 1400 PDT, hopefully the news is good for the crew. Virgin's twitter account is saying the status of the pilots is "unknown".

[Kryten]

The police are saying at least one dead, and they're the people at the scene. The scanner link is a few posts down in my link earlier, listen for yourself.

[Mr Shifty]

Reposted image of debris from NSF forums.

[Mr Shifty]

AP is now reporting 1 fatality, 1 major injury. Thoughts to the families, friends and co-workers. This is a very sad day for space flight.

[Kryten]

May not be a third person, seems confirmation of 'three on board' was for one of the choppers at the scene.

[RocketscientistV]

This is a terrible day for private spaceflight. My thoughts go out to family and friends.

[Airlock]

Joel Glenn Brenner just tore Virgin Galactic apart on CNN. Reported an engine failure after 2 second burn, explosion after restart.

[Guest]

Damn it. Not only good people died, humanity may have lost prospects for suborbital transoceanic passenger flights today, may be even forever.

[RocketscientistV]

From images of crash site we see a part of the tail all in one area so it looks like a mid flight break up, but i have not seen all of debris.

[Caelib]

Uh oh, that's pretty bad, I hope the other pilot is fine. This has been a bad week for private space industry for sure.

Yeah, absolutely brutal Just a reminder of how dangerous and volatile rocket propulsion can be ... some day humanity will look back and say "remember when we used to ride fireballs into orbit?! that was INSANE!"