An explosion at the factory of
Scaled
Composites, which made the first private trip into space with
SpaceShipOne,
has killed three people and injured three more.
The explosion occurred during testing of the rocket engine systems for
SpaceShipTwo, which will take passengers into low earth orbit with
Virgin
Galactic.
Early reports suggest that nitrous oxide was being pushed through piping
without the rocket firing, and that the gas escaped and ignited.
"We were doing a test we believe was safe," Burt Rutan, head of Scaled
Composites, told
CBS. "We do not
know why it exploded. We just do not know."
Will Whitehorn, president of Virgin Galactic, expressed his sympathy to the
families of the deceased and declined to comment further until Scaled Composites
has completed its investigation.
Many astronauts have been killed in accidents, and many more ground crew, in
the US. The entire crew of Apollo 1 died in their capsule after an oxygen fire,
and the crews of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttles died inflight.
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Orbital hotels in 25 years, says Space Ship One pilot 02 Mar 2005
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