Spaceship 2, Virgin Galactic's effort to bring civilian traffic to space, crashed this Friday. One pilot died, the other was able to bail out but was injured.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/31/us-space-crash-virgin-idUSKBN0IK24220141031
The craft was designed to be launched from a large aircraft. During a test, it successfully launched, but there was what they describe as a "serious anomaly" in the craft's rocket engine. The fact that one of the two pilots was unable to bail out suggests the "anomaly" may have injured the pilots, possibly killing one of them. We'll learn more as time goes by. Spaceship 2 was intended to fly out of our New Mexico Spaceport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo
Coming on the heels of the failed rocket launch earlier this week, it's been a bad week for space.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/31/us-space-crash-virgin-idUSKBN0IK24220141031
The craft was designed to be launched from a large aircraft. During a test, it successfully launched, but there was what they describe as a "serious anomaly" in the craft's rocket engine. The fact that one of the two pilots was unable to bail out suggests the "anomaly" may have injured the pilots, possibly killing one of them. We'll learn more as time goes by. Spaceship 2 was intended to fly out of our New Mexico Spaceport.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo
Coming on the heels of the failed rocket launch earlier this week, it's been a bad week for space.
