Photo by Steve Jurvetson
Virgin Galactic's VSS Enterprise, a test model of the SpaceShipTwo suborbital rocket plane exploded today during a test flight over California today. The vehicle was piloted by two test pilots. According to reports from the California Highway Patrol, one of the pilots has died; the other pilot has suffered major injuries.The SpaceShipTwo is intended to be a commercial suborbital tourism vehicle which will carry six passengers on a suborbital ballistic trajectory, taking them up past 50 miles for a few minutes at the edge of space. Tickets for the ride are priced at $250,000 and more than 700 people have made deposits for the flight, reportedly including Brad Pitt, Angela Jolie, Katy Perry, and Stephen Hawking.The test plane exploded shortly after the engine was ignited, following release from the carrier plane, the WhiteKnightTwo. VSS Enterprise was testing an engine with a new propellant. The engine change, which is very unusual at this late stage of evaluation, was prompted because of a combination of excessive vibration and performance issues associated with the previous propellant choice.SpaceShipTwo is made by The Spaceship Company, a spinoff of Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites company that built the predecessor proof-of-concept vehicle, SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004. The Spaceship Company is contracted to deliver five SpaceShipTwo vehicles to Virgin Galactic once the test flights had been completed and design finalized. However, VSS Enterprise was Virgin Galatic's only test vehicle, so it is unclear what arrangements will need to be made for test and validation to resume.Rumors have been circulating for quite some time that part of Virgin Galactic's aggressive test schedule over the last year has been driven from demands from Abu Dahbi-based Aarbar Investments, which has ties to the United Arab Emirates government. Virgin Galactic has strenuously denied these claims.Nonetheless, a former Washington Post reporter, Joel Glenn Brenner, who has been following the development of SpaceShipTwo closely was interviewed on CNN earlier today about the accident and she claimed that the wildly overoptimistic claims by and aggressive test schedule of Virgin Galactic management made them directly culpable for today's tragic accident.Follow Ryan Faith on Twitter: @Operation_RyanPhoto via Flickr
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