saramos

Two people were killed and 4 others injured in an explosion today at about 2:45. Burt Rutan was not at the site when an explosion occurred at a rocket test site.

Here's a link to an AP report

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

My condolences

Scott

SPLIT S

Do we know if it was actually at Scaled or somewhere at the airport?

saramos

Yes, it was at a test owned by Scaled Composites where they performing a rocket engine test when it exploded. The site was destroyed including knocking over a couple of large trucks, one being a tanker truck.

Here's another link to the story.
http://www.knbc.com/news/13764132/detail.html

Scott

SPLIT S

My condolances to the families. Pushing the frontier can unfortunately have a high price.

Respectfully,
Dan

iron eagel

My condolences to all involved also.

timothy thompson

My Feedback: (1)

was mike mellville hurt

pbunn

My Feedback: (1)

It appears that they were running a cold flow test of nitrous through the motor injectors with no fuel. This was considered safe but the air temperature at the test site was very hot and it appears to be a nitrous pressure vessel failure. There is a lot to be learned with hybrid motor technology. Three people were killed as another died at the hospital.

longdan

This is the first I heard of it through this thread.
If it had happened during re-entry, it would have made front page headlines world-wide, even though the tradgedy is still the same.

Ed Smith

Longdan,

You are absolutely correct in your assesment. However the American news media requires "Spectacular" disasters for their news coverage, they sell more advertising space. Industrial disasters do not.

Ed S

saramos

Coverage was mostly local news here in Los Angeles.

Scott

aerowoof

this is the first I heard of this also shame on the news agencies for not reporting news

iron eagel

Today it isn't news unless it sells.

old git

A full page article with pictures appeared in the Guardian (UK Broadsheet) on 28th July, accurately describing the events and possible consequences financially.




old git - - - - - - aka John L.

4*60

My Feedback: (41)

Trying to mess with Branson/Virgin I guess. Here we don't have our celebrities involved I guess.