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SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:16 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets
This is a very bad week. Virgin Galactic' SpaceShip2 has crashed. At least one dead.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-v ... story.html

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Fri Oct 31, 2014 5:34 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:This is a very bad week. Virgin Galactic' SpaceShip2 has crashed. At least one dead.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-v ... story.html
Getting word that the engine exploded upon ignition. One pilot was able to bail out but was badly injured and the other did not get out.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 5:10 pm
by bugwubber
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:This is a very bad week. Virgin Galactic' SpaceShip2 has crashed. At least one dead.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-v ... story.html
Getting word that the engine exploded upon ignition. One pilot was able to bail out but was badly injured and the other did not get out.
Read an interesting article, that perhaps success came to early with the hybrid engine. That scaling was proving impossible due to the rough running nature of the engine. But can't change the engine when you have already built a plane around it. The article was written before this launch.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Sat Nov 01, 2014 10:02 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
bugwubber wrote:
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:This is a very bad week. Virgin Galactic' SpaceShip2 has crashed. At least one dead.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-v ... story.html
Getting word that the engine exploded upon ignition. One pilot was able to bail out but was badly injured and the other did not get out.
Read an interesting article, that perhaps success came to early with the hybrid engine. That scaling was proving impossible due to the rough running nature of the engine. But can't change the engine when you have already built a plane around it. The article was written before this launch.

Apparently, there were people with serious concerns about the safety of the program that had filed letters of complaint regarding the engine and other issues. It's sounding like the PR people were keeping these concerns silent and there were a great deal of over-promising and under-delivering going on.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 4:12 pm
by bugwubber
So obviously the research is still being done but this statement-

"...the fuel tanks, the oxidizer tanks and the engine, and all were intact, showed no signs of burn through, no signs of being breached."

Combined with the determination that the tail "feathered" early

well, this is going to be an interesting story.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 10:58 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets
bugwubber wrote:So obviously the research is still being done but this statement-

"...the fuel tanks, the oxidizer tanks and the engine, and all were intact, showed no signs of burn through, no signs of being breached."

Combined with the determination that the tail "feathered" early

well, this is going to be an interesting story.
That really adds to the mystery. Why did the ship release the tail section? Some reports are saying the pilot did it manually, but how do they know?

The real jaw dropping thing is that the copilot parachuted from 50,000+ feet at Mach 1 with no space suit.

Speculation was that he fell to 20,000 feet to get into "warm" air before opening his chute. How did he even breathe? Maybe he just held his breath until he thought he would pass out and then pulled the cord?

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:55 pm
by bugwubber
U.S. Water Rockets wrote:
bugwubber wrote:So obviously the research is still being done but this statement-

"...the fuel tanks, the oxidizer tanks and the engine, and all were intact, showed no signs of burn through, no signs of being breached."

Combined with the determination that the tail "feathered" early

well, this is going to be an interesting story.
That really adds to the mystery. Why did the ship release the tail section? Some reports are saying the pilot did it manually, but how do they know?

The real jaw dropping thing is that the copilot parachuted from 50,000+ feet at Mach 1 with no space suit.

Speculation was that he fell to 20,000 feet to get into "warm" air before opening his chute. How did he even breathe? Maybe he just held his breath until he thought he would pass out and then pulled the cord?
Sounds very similar to the SR71 test pilot whose plane disintegrated around him. He didn't eject and somehow his parachute and seat set into eject mode. Something just went right for him.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Thu Nov 06, 2014 5:34 pm
by bugwubber
They had video feed from the cockpit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/busin ... pe=article
In addition, a video camera in the cockpit showed Mr. Alsbury switching the lever to the unlocked position, Mr. Hart said. That occurred at a velocity of about Mach 1, which is the speed of sound at a given altitude. Under normal operations, that lever would not be moved until later in the flight, when the space plane had reached a speed of Mach 1.4, Mr. Hart said. The plane’s altitude would also be higher, where the air is thinner.

Two seconds later, the booms rotated, even though neither pilot had moved the feathering handle.

“Shortly after the feathering occurred, the telemetry data terminated, and the video data terminated," Mr. Hart said. "The engine burn was normal, up until the extension of the feathers.”
Damn. The very thing that Mr. Rutan extolled as making this spacecraft safer than all others just ended up being one more way to die.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Sat Nov 08, 2014 2:59 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets
bugwubber wrote:They had video feed from the cockpit.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/04/busin ... pe=article
In addition, a video camera in the cockpit showed Mr. Alsbury switching the lever to the unlocked position, Mr. Hart said. That occurred at a velocity of about Mach 1, which is the speed of sound at a given altitude. Under normal operations, that lever would not be moved until later in the flight, when the space plane had reached a speed of Mach 1.4, Mr. Hart said. The plane’s altitude would also be higher, where the air is thinner.

Two seconds later, the booms rotated, even though neither pilot had moved the feathering handle.

“Shortly after the feathering occurred, the telemetry data terminated, and the video data terminated," Mr. Hart said. "The engine burn was normal, up until the extension of the feathers.”
Damn. The very thing that Mr. Rutan extolled as making this spacecraft safer than all others just ended up being one more way to die.

People are asking for refunds on their deposits now.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Thu Nov 13, 2014 3:11 am
by bugwubber
Here it is- the surviving pilot didn't eject, he just suddenly found himself outside his spacecraft.

http://www.newser.com/story/198570/ntsb ... eship.html

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2014 11:11 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets1
bugwubber wrote:Here it is- the surviving pilot didn't eject, he just suddenly found himself outside his spacecraft.

http://www.newser.com/story/198570/ntsb ... eship.html
That explanation was something we were speculating about. That's pretty crazy. Can you imagine what that was like?

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2014 10:25 am
by bugwubber
U.S. Water Rockets1 wrote:
bugwubber wrote:Here it is- the surviving pilot didn't eject, he just suddenly found himself outside his spacecraft.

http://www.newser.com/story/198570/ntsb ... eship.html
That explanation was something we were speculating about. That's pretty crazy. Can you imagine what that was like?
No.

Re: SpaceShip2 Crashes!

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2014 12:58 pm
by U.S. Water Rockets
bugwubber wrote:
U.S. Water Rockets1 wrote:
bugwubber wrote:Here it is- the surviving pilot didn't eject, he just suddenly found himself outside his spacecraft.

http://www.newser.com/story/198570/ntsb ... eship.html
That explanation was something we were speculating about. That's pretty crazy. Can you imagine what that was like?
No.
The other night the movie "Red Tails" was playing on one of the cable channels, and they have some scenes in the beginning of WWII bombers getting shot down by German fighters. The effects were incredible, and they took the time to show some brief clips of the bomber interiors as they were shot and were going down, and how hard it would be to escape a plane that was spiraling out of control. It looks like a lot of the airmen who got out were more or less thrown out when the planes broke up. Pretty scary stuff.