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Mojave Explosion

Scaled Composites: SpaceShipTwo(from astronautics.com)

Word from afar is that there has been an explosion that has killed two people in Mojave and that it involves Scaled Composites.

Speculation is that the explosion involves the N20 tank.

for a detailed view of this, click here.

At this point we don't know who, what or how, all we know is two people are dead at this point.

Rand Simberg is running updates every few minutes as information arrives. He is the go to guy for this material.

It comes as a surprise to me, but Scaled had its own internal Rocket Propulsion Team for SS2, and at the moment it appears that it would be members of the Scaled team who were killed in the accident. For SpaceShipOne, this critical component was subcontracted. I do not know the reason (design?, cost? control? speed of implementation? proprietary fears? )for the decision to take this work internal.

UPDATE: confirmed, its Scaled Team members who have been killed:

From ABCNEWS.com
"Aerospace designer Burt Rutan, who heads Scaled, was away at the time. He sounded distraught in a phone call with The Associated Press as he was en route to the scene. "We've lost a couple of our employees. It's a very big deal," Rutan said."

Update II: via CNN.com

"Rutan told CNN he was not at the spaceport at the time of the explosion, which he said happened during a "cold fire test".

Posted @ July 26, 2007 07:43 PM | Aviation

Posted by: L.J. Brooks at July 29, 2007 04:24 AM