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SpaceshipTwo crashes shortly after Mojave test flight

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Re: SpaceshipTwo crashes shortly after Mojave test flight

#4

Most information seems to be on Twitter at the moment. Only official statement from Virgin is that the flight experienced an in-flight anomoly: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/virgin-galact...

https://twitter.com/hashtag/SS2?src=hash for reference

Re: SpaceshipTwo crashes shortly after Mojave test flight

#6
post #3

Nasaspaceflight.com has reports saying one pilot has been found alive and another didn't make it. http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35117.270 What a terrible week. :(

News reports cited that witnesses said they only saw a single chute. Very sad day indeed.

Re: SpaceshipTwo crashes shortly after Mojave test flight

#8
From https://twitter.com/virgingalactic

> Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of #SpaceShipTwo earlier today.

> During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely.

> Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time.

> We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP.

Re: SpaceshipTwo crashes shortly after Mojave test flight

#9
Condolences to the friends and family of anyone who may have perished in this event.

While this is a major set-back and bummer, at the same time it is far better that something like this happen during a test than during a commercial flight. Whatever the design, manufacturing, or process issues are, they will now be sussed out reducing the chance of a failure later on.

I sincerely hope this is not such a huge set-back that it totally derails Virgin/Scaled's approach as I love the fact that we have competing commercial concepts working at the same time.

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