Space Tourism Claims Its First Lives

Aerospace designer Burt Rutan talks as Kern County fire chief Michael Cody looks on during a news conference near the site of an explosion. Mark J. Terrill/AP Photo 

An explosion at Mojave Spaceport in southern California claimed three lives yesterday and critically injured at least three more individuals. The blast occurred at 2:45 p.m. Thursday during a rocket-motor test being conducted by Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites.

Scaled is currently developing SpaceShipTwo for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. It’s an up-scaled version of the aerospace firm’s SpaceShipOne, which in 2004 won the X Prize for the first successful privately funded suborbital spaceflight.
      
Rutan told reporters yesterday evening that the explosion occurred not during a rocket test launch, but during testing of rocket motor components, including an injector, through which nitrous oxide was flowing under pressure at room temperature.

"We were doing a test we believe was safe. We don't know why it exploded. We just don't know," the Associated Press' Alicia Chang reported Rutan as saying.

Like SpaceShipOne, SpaceShipTwo will be powered by a hybrid solid-fuel-and-liquid-oxidizer rocket motor. SpaceShipOne's fuel, and likely SpaceShipTwo's as well, was synthetic rubber.  Both ships use nitrous oxide as the oxidizer--required because rocket engines burn too rapidly to use atmospheric oxygen for sustained combustion. Rutan and his team chose this design over purely liquid or solid fueled motors because of its relative safety. The fuel and oxidizer are generally considered safe to handle, and the rocket can easily be shut down in flight in the event of a problem.

Still, any space program, public or private, is inherently risky.  "An unfortunate truth is that spaceflight, particularly human spaceflight, is hard," Eric Anderson, CEO of space tourism company Space Adventures told attendees at the NewSpace 2007 conference in Washington just last week. "It's not an easy industry, and we cannot kid ourselves about that."

Virgin hopes to launch paying space travelers into space by 2009, charging them $200,000 each for the flight. SpaceShipTwo is due to be unveiled by Scaled this fall. 
       

How this will affect Scaled/Virgin’s plans is at the moment unclear—as are details about the incident, how it happened, and whose lives were claimed (see update below) at the small, tightly knit company.

But these three deaths constitute the first lives claimed by the nascent space tourism industry, and the explosion is going to make it considerably harder for those advocating the ventures around the world to convince an already deeply skeptical populace that the flights will be reliable and safe. 
-Eric Adams and Michael Belfiore

UPDATE (1:05 PM EST): The deceased have been identified as 38-year-old Eric Blackwell of Randsburg, 45-year-old Charles May of Mojave, and 33-year-old Todd Ivens of Tehachapi. Their roles at Scaled Composites are currently unknown.

Comments

[Bryan]

May they Rest in Peace. Three brave and daring souls, pushing the limits of human achievement.

It is sad but their work in not in vain and will yield untold benefits and advancement in space flight in the not too distant future.

Stay safe and keep up the great work Burt, Richard and Co.

[Tom Gallagher]

What a sad day for Space pioneers.

I think it is worth mentioning that N2O hybrid systems aren't as safe as generally conceived, there has been a lot of cases of suck back when the tanks become low.

Though the more probable cause of the accident would have been due to a blockage in the combustion chamber, a piece of Hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene rubber (the fuel) may have broken off during the burn and sealed off the nozzle creating a CATO.

My condolences to the family's and friends of the deceased.

[Al Fin]

Humans seem to learn by trial and error. Injuries and deaths of pioneers leads to safety procedures and innovations that makes the lives of later practitioners more secure.

Make it as safe as we can, but keep pushing the envelope.

[GAETANOMARANO.IT]

.

"space pioneers" or "space hobbyists"?

.

[Brian]

I would hope you wouldn't denegrate the hard and complicated work that these space engineers are doing with the term hobbyist. These people are truly pioneers pushing the envelope in order to facilitate the ability to populate space and other worlds. Yes they are doing it for a profit to a degree but most of them love the idea of space as do a great many of the worlds population.

[Khurram Zulfiqar]

the perils of spaceflight are already common knowledge. this tragic event would help make future flights more safe rather than expose what was already a fact! Engineering is about making the intangible tangible rather than restricting our options to our fears

[Ed Wilson]

Space is a terrifying and wonderful thing. Apollo and Mercury proved just how hazardous the affair can be. But to continue the work in light of tragedies is what human evolution is all about. These brave people should be remembered and honoured for their work and dreams of the future.

[Pat Hynes]

Our condolences to the family and friends of those killed and injured. The personal spaceflight community is a small and closely knit family. The work will continue. Those souls will be remembered at the 2007 International Symposium for Personal Spaceflight.

[J. I. Logan]

My most sincere condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the deceased. I hope for quick and complete recovery for the injured.

[Jasica]

For most advances, people must die.
These are the lucky few to die, in order to save many others.

[Jake Sullivan]

GOD SPEED !!!
We truly appreciate the sacrifice. Our future beacons us.

[Kevin]

I feel for their families and I don't know (or rather doubt)if this would help but they were doing something they believed in and most likely enjoyed and somewhere in their mind they knew it had its dangers. But if the company stops now, I don't believe they would have wanted that. Let their memories live on in the success of what they helped start.

[Aaron]

There must be failure before sucess. Let this be the only failure

[ragingmonk]

Life is risk
we would not be here if someone wasn't striving.
From goo we came to what? quit?
nah if i was smart enough
I wouldnt give up the chance
to push the advancement
even knowing i could die
Hats off to the brave souls
in any profession who die knowing
its the right thing to do

Press on
nothing can take the place of perseverance
Talent will not
nothing is more commen than unsuccessful men with talent
Genuis will not
unrewarded genuis is almost a proverb
Education will not.
the world is full of educated derelicts.
persistance and determination alone are omnipotent
press on
-- Calvin Coolidge

my thoughts go out to you

[david]

Don't give guys. IT CAN BE DONE against all odds. I feel for the families of the ones who perish, their families should know that THEY ARE HEROES that Represent the American Spirit.