SpaceShipTwo Crash

[Camacha]

You can find the relevant thread here. Cheers!

[NERVAfan]

Whilst I don't think this will be the end to space tourism, there is a bit of a conformation bias going on here. There have also been cases of single events effectively ending progress.

1937 - Hindenburg disaster results in almost complete death of airship industry.

2000 - Concorde crash ultimately results in Concorde being retired & the end of commercial supersonic flight.

I wonder if the SpaceShipTwo design will survive this.

For airships, at least, it wasn't a single event. The Hindenburg gets all the press, but previous accidents had ended other nations' airship programs, e.g. the US loss of Akron & Macon.

[Vanamonde]

Merged and some characters.

[Beowolf]

Directly from the horses mouth:

SNC's official statement today is pretty unambiguous;

Awesome, thanks!

[NERVAfan]

I will be pissed if the government uses this as an excuse to shut down Virgin Galactic and throttle SpaceX with safety regs.

Everyone screws up at least once.

Yeah. One accident is not really a reason to impose more regulation on the industry. Virgin Galactic may be a dead end, but other companies aren't.

[HafCoJoe]

You know what, I haven't made a replica craft in a long time. This one deserves a tribute.

[Kulebron]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but reading press releases I don't see any mention of earlier successful flights. Like usually it's mentioned, "this was Nth flight". If this is so, then flying manned with a redesigned engine was a too risky decision.

Nobody ever puts men on a spacecraft with a new engine or new/modified critical equimpent.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Kulebron

[megatiger78]

I just heard something about this on a radio

[Meecrob]

Nobody ever puts men on a spacecraft with a new engine or new/modified critical equimpent.

I agree, but I'm not sure that SS2 had remote guidance or fully pre-programmed autoflight capabilities unfortunately.

[Hydrazine_Soup]

You know what, I haven't made a replica craft in a long time. This one deserves a tribute.

I really need to repimp mine with the new parts

[Red Iron Crown]

Yeah the other pilot died... R.I.P

News link

Your link doesn't say that, and I can't seem to find another source that does. Where did you read the second pilot died?

[montyben101]

Your link doesn't say that, and I can't seem to find another source that does. Where did you read the second pilot died?

Ah .. derp sorry

[Dodgey]

Disreguard.

Edited November 1, 2014 by Dodgey

[Red Iron Crown]

Go to the link in the OP. It says it there.

? That link says one dead, one injured as well.

[crazyewok]

I'm going to have to agree with Kryten here.

UP YOURS, Virgin Galactic. I am very sorry you lost a crew member today. I'm genuinely upset that a very brave man is dead.

But the reason that man is dead is because of your half-arsed attempt to monetise space travel. Like you're anywhere near being able to make it a sport for the wealthy.

You're not. We as a species are not. Space is hard for us - even the suborbital bull you're selling - and every successful launch by a commercial concern is just another lesson in how difficult it is. It's not a game. It's not a toy. And if you want to know how to do things, look at Space-X.

This is incredibly important to us as a species. We need to do this right, and can't be squeamish about people dying. But when those people die, it should be because they were doing something amazing. Not because they were testing a white elephant that lets privileged dickheads get a few minutes of weightlesness.

And its attitudes like this I was scared off.

It means slowing down and restricting any possible future progress.

Its attitudes like this why the USA is having to hitch rides with the Russians.

Sorry but accidents HAPPEN thats the nature of new technology. How many died in the early days of air travel?

Being squeamish just holds back progress.

No one held a gun to the pilots head and told them to fly for VG they worked for VG by choice! They fly a experimental aircraft know this could happen by choice! You dont become a test pilots cause you want a safe career! Yes its sad 1 died but they knew very well this could be the end result. Now seeing a they put there lifes at risk for the potential of technological progress to hold back or give up insults there sacrifices.

[hugix]

I spoke to Richard Branson a few years ago during the filming of a show (college tour, where students get to ask questions to important people). When I talked with him he promised that my generation (I'm 1989) would get the opportunity to fly into space on a suborbital trajectory. On the same level as we get access to conventional flying now.

And knowing Branson, he'll keep fighting till he fulfilled that promise!

[Kryten]

There is no chance for progress here. The shuttlecock doesn't scale up past SS2 scale, the hybrid didn't scale up past SS1 scale despite Branson banking that it would-there's nothing else new. Lynx and New Shepard have more mature technologies and more growth potential.

[Ignath]

Its attitudes like this why the USA is having to hitch rides with the Russians.

Sorry crazyewok, but it's not at all because of attitudes like that (Kryten/Frannington) that the USA is hitching rides with the Russians to the ISS.

That is entirely due to short-sighted, war mongering politicians who would rather fund bombs, guns and wars around the world than put .005% of that money into expanding our horizons and looking further into spaceflight/space travel. Weak-willed politicians who prefer war over science; generally because they are directly PROFITING from it by owning stock in or being lobbied by these multi-national war makers and war profiteers.

[KasperVld]

Lets keep political discussions and discussions about politicians away from the forums please

[crazyewok]

Lets keep political discussions and discussions about politicians away from the forums please

Unfortunately the above poster is right. It does intertwine itself with space exploration a annoying way.

[Chrisitdeveloper]

So many of you have probably already heard the news from yesterdays tragic moment of the explosion of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, unfortunately killing one pilot and seriously injuring another.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29861259

In honor of our fallen pioneering space heroes I intend to download one of the White Knight/SpaceShipTwo craft and doing a single flight to show respect.

I hope you will all join me and do the same!

Edited November 1, 2014 by Chrisitdeveloper

[Dodgey]

Ok now I feel like an idiot, I misinterpreted what was ment by second pilot, disreguard.

[RocketscientistV]

So because of this crash I made a replica of SS2.

[pxi]

Sad news to wake up to.

For me, it's not about finger-pointing. It's another sobering reminder of the difficulty of economic access to space. I have nothing but respect for the pilot that lost his life. I will say that I find it strangely comforting that anyone survived -- hopefully the other pilot makes a full recovery.

Beyond that, anything I could say is better said by the CEO of Virgin Galactic:

"Space is hard, and today was a tough day," Whitesides told reporters. "We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it. The future rests in many ways on hard, hard days like this. But we believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who are working so hard on them to understand this and to move forward."

[GoSlash27]

I'm thinkin' the switch from a rubber binder to a plastic is what caused the motor to blow. Are there other theories floating around?

Best,

-Slashy