Virgin galactic spaceship crashed, one dead

*frown*
Praying for the pilots families

Their quest is noble . .. . .Their sacrifice should not be forgotten

Rocket River

 

That's a shame. RIP

 

Damn. Died a virgin.

 

Isn't this like the second crash of a private space ship in a week? This is why the government should only be involved in space travel. Government has a track record of safety + success = excellence

 

This is terrible -- Virgin was just starting to finally pick up the pace and looked ready to make major steps this year. Now they have a total failure with one fatality and one severely injured pilot. This failure -- possibly connected to a new fuel they were using for the first time for increased power -- will set them back 5+ years minimum.

 

Yes, NASA has a spotless record. The government feeds me, bathes me, and makes sure my space travel is warm and snuggly with zero defects or casualties.

 

It's tragic. I honestly don't get the humor from some of you, not this time. A test pilot was killed and another was seriously injured. I think that besides a new fuel, that an different engine was tried. Anyone know details? A setback for manned space flight, although Branson's venture will be looked upon in the future as just one of many baby steps leading to a permanent human presence in space, in my humble opinion.

 

You are horrible. I laughed.

 

Hmmm... Can't tell if sarcastic. If not, this one is a great read: http://www.idlewords.com/2005/08/a_rocket_to_nowhere.htm

 

The shuttle alone took 833 people into orbit with 14 fatalities. How many people has this private craft taken into orbit? This flight was suborbital so I am assuming ZERO with one fatality. Want to do the math on that?

That article you linked is really garbage. Facts that were easily wrong when it was written and predictions that look asinine now that it is 10 years later.

 

Happy to oblige. 1.68% fatality rate. Not exactly a shining record of:

Especially considering how much money went into the Shuttle program vs. Space Ship Two.

To put it in perspective, you are MORE likely to die on a trip in a space shuttle than in a car. Not many things in life can boast that kind of claim.

[EDIT] Just to be clear, I think space exploration a great endeavor regardless of who is helming the pursuit. It doesn't need to be a "us vs. them" "government vs. private sector" etc. kind of thing. I linked the article originally more to illustrate that it's an inherently dangerous undertaking, no matter who is doing it.

 

Seems to me that it would take a larger number of missions before a program like space flight would have crossed such a threshold as to no longer be considered an experiment or a pioneering expedition. Therefore the risk and fatality rate are reasonable to me. And an unfair comparison to other forms of travel. The program is still experimental due to the limitation of cost. But because it has been done, it will be done. Only a matter of time on this one.

 

You are so full of it in so many respects.
NASA has been in the business so many years with so many failures to be able to get to where it is at and it still fails at times.

You need to give private enterprises time to experiment and gain the expertise. If we stop at the first failure every time then we, as a human race, would not have been able to do anything.

Do you know what else? When we talk about the government flying into space, who actually does the work? Lockheed Martin, Boeing .... private companies. All the government does is oversight and sometimes it is a hinder more than help.

I work in the space industry, btw.

 

This is terribly tragic and RIP to the pilots.

I hope I don't sound callous here but risk including death is to be expected with exploring and expanding any new frontier. Think about how many people died sailing the oceans on voyages of exploration. How many died making air travel a convenient and practical realty.

In many ways our society has become very risk averse but if we really want to push out into space for more than just short visits but for practical travel, development and eventual colonization there are likely going to be many many more tragedies. My own feeling is that as a species our only long term hope of survival is to move beyond the Earth but that is not going to be easy or without great costs.

 

Excellent post, Judo, and I couldn't agree more. The mistake NASA made during the shuttle program was attempting to portray shuttle flights as being almost routine, when it was anything but. We have another decade to go, in my opinion, before manned space flight into low orbit, like to the ISS, becomes something resembling routine, if then.

 

while I agree with your sentiment, I think the reality is that without subsidation, private companies can't bear the costs of a failure this proportion and continue to operate while in their infancy. Once a program demonstrates some repeatable success, then they may be able to withstand a crash, but not until then. So while the crash and casualties my be considered par for the course, it's the kiss of death to RB.

 

I'm surprised that one of the pilot's was able to survive a major mishap at 45,000 feet.

Agree with those, like KingCheetah noted, that say this will really set back Virgin Galactic.

How many new customers putting up $250,000 each will they be getting during the next year, and how many existing customers will want to pull out.

Agree with rj that space travel is our only long-term hope as a species. That's not an opinion but a fact: the life cycle of the sun is well understood, even if we survive our own self-inflicted issues.

 

In my brief reading it seems like Virgin Galactic is not even close to being able to accomplish space flight. They should just give up and refund everyone their money.

 

Spoiler