Virgin Galactic SpaceShip Two crashed?

[onyx39]

[Foppo]

[redacted]

[Seventy]

Absolutely no doubt that the majority will be running for cover in my mind. Are not most celebrities/high net worth individuals?
That won't be taking any unnecessary risks..

[Zoobeef]

I hope it's not permanently grounded, will depend on how long they take to find the fault and what it is. If the tickets get to less than £50k I'm getting one.

[Magog]

With regards to the 2007 explosion, looks like these guys have an agenda... but still makes for interesting reading;

http://www.knightsarrow.com/rockets/scaled-composi...

[-Z-]

Bearing in mind that it does NOT have ejection seats, just an escape hatch, it is amazing that anyone survived.

[Thankyou4calling]

Very very sad for the people on board but this projects has had so many false starts and promises from Richard Branson that haven't materialised.

Now, it'll be re jigged and the Virgin PR machine will be at full speed but it won't deliver on its promises, never would've.

[Petrus1983]

It may sound callous but something like this was bound to happen with one of the projects sooner or later, it's just what happens when you push and push against the barriers. The project can easily bounce back, but if the backers will be so tolerant is yet to be seen. Imagine if life assurance companies suddenly banned their clients for being involved - I'd say 80% of clients would be out overnight.

[CamMoreRon]

weyland yutani said:

I know nothing about engineering but the long span between the two fuselages looked flimsy to me. Im sure it's very strong but to a layman observer it doesn't inspire confidence in a supersonic, low earth orbit vehicle.

Just to correct you on this, the craft with two fuselages is the launch vehicle, and the "space" craft is suspended between the two. The launch vehicle takes it up to 40k ft and detaches, then the space craft fires a solid rocket motor to boost it up to low Earth orbit. It was the space craft that had the malfunction and crash.. I assume the launch vehicle is ok.

Anywho.. really sad to see this happen, but I seriously doubt it will put any ticket holders off!

[lazyitus]

Jasandjules said:

That is a shame.

I don't want to make light of it but many people die pushing boundaries of technology

Absolutely. Throughout manned flights early history, there's been tons of deaths. It's very sad but inevitable when humans keep trying to go the extra step. Aeroplanes, space shuttles, rockets... All have a history of death and disaster.

Hope it doesn't mean the end of the project.

[Flugzeug]

[redacted]

[don4l]

Flugzeug said:

If only you had voiced your concerns to Virgin before this happened. I'm sure that "flimsiness" was the cause and you have noticed a design flaw that hundreds of experienced and talented engineers have overlooked....

There was clearly a design flaw.

It crashed.

[Zoobeef]

don4l said:

There was clearly a design flaw.

It crashed.

Or pilot error.

[Flugzeug]

don4l said:

Flugzeug said:

If only you had voiced your concerns to Virgin before this happened. I'm sure that "flimsiness" was the cause and you have noticed a design flaw that hundreds of experienced and talented engineers have overlooked....

There was clearly a design flaw.

It crashed.

Do you honestly think I was suggesting that there wasn't?

[SV8Predator]

Petrus1983 said:

something like this was bound to happen with one of the projects sooner or later, it's just what happens when you push and push against the barriers.

lazyitus said:

It's very sad but inevitable when humans keep trying to go the extra step. Aeroplanes, space shuttles, rockets... All have a history of death and disaster.

Well thank fk you two were not on our side during WW2.

How do you think humanity has progressed if it wasn't for "pushing against the barriers"?

[sjn2004]

Jasandjules said:

That is a shame.

I don't want to make light of it but many people die pushing boundaries of technology

1963 , X15 did it. Looks like the Virgin project is a copy yet they can't get it to work.

They used a B-52 back then rather than some poncy looking effort that started to fall apart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-15_Flight_91

Thats over 50 years ago….

[just1]

Pics of breakup
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/dead-injured-virg...

[0a]

How sad, I hope the issue is identified and resolved and they can crack on.

[Bluequay]

SV8Predator said:

Petrus1983 said:

something like this was bound to happen with one of the projects sooner or later, it's just what happens when you push and push against the barriers.

lazyitus said:

It's very sad but inevitable when humans keep trying to go the extra step. Aeroplanes, space shuttles, rockets... All have a history of death and disaster.

Well thank fk you two were not on our side during WW2.

How do you think humanity has progressed if it wasn't for "pushing against the barriers"?

You seem to have spectacularly missed the point both posters were making. Lucky you weren't on our side during World War Two!

[cold thursday]

weyland yutani said:

I know nothing about engineering

Well shut the fk up then. I do Know something about it, and have a lot of respect for Bert Rutan, Scaled Composites, and all of the rest those people.