From their twitter:

Quote :

"#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming."

reports from rescue helicopters lots of debris, possible fatalities.

10/31/2014 2:18:53 PM

according to scanner, one survivor, one fatality.



[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 2:37 PM. Reason : ]

10/31/2014 2:20:31 PM

Quote :

"Ss2 had trouble with engine burn, blew up, came down in pieces near Koehn Lake."

10/31/2014 2:27:47 PM

This is not at all what I have read. I read that it was a test firing of the engine on the ground.

10/31/2014 2:28:37 PM

no it was a test flight.

10/31/2014 2:30:04 PM

Considering that this was intended to run passenger flights very soon, and that many people are currently on the list, this isn't good at all. I thought their design was basically going to lick the safety issue. Guess we're still getting reminders about the risks of spaceflight

10/31/2014 2:30:24 PM

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=35117.225

here is a thread following the flight.

10/31/2014 2:30:56 PM

https://twitter.com/spacecom/status/528251513152765952

Quote :

"Saw on[e] of crash sites. Body still in seat."

10/31/2014 2:32:07 PM

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-crashes-during-flight-test-n238376

Oh man. Loss of crew always makes these things so much worse. The Orbital failure sucked but this one is a complete tragedy.

[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 2:36 PM. Reason : ]

10/31/2014 2:34:03 PM

this is very bad news. RIP to the pilot.

10/31/2014 2:36:02 PM

one of the pilots being carried by stretcher to helicopter.

10/31/2014 2:39:25 PM

10/31/2014 3:00:57 PM

Yeah, story i read was old. NBC was reporting two chutes were sighted. I guess thats wrong?

10/31/2014 3:01:07 PM

Two chutes doesn't necessarily mean they both survived or even made it out of the aircraft.

10/31/2014 3:07:37 PM

yeah, especially if it has some sort of ejection system, you could be dead before you're ejected, or killed by the ejection itself, or killed by the landing, or even land safely and get dragged to death by your 'chute (had a Harrier pilot acquaintance from NCSU whose dad was killed in that way after ejecting from a Harrier).

10/31/2014 3:17:06 PM

They are waiting for the coroner at Mojave airport now according to the scanner traffic. Helicopter is going to get coroners crew and get them out. Not sure if that is for the second pilot who parachuted or the first who was DOA in seat?

10/31/2014 3:18:54 PM

Quote :

"killed by the ejection itself"

Generally how high is the survivability of ejecting? Asking for my friend Goose.

10/31/2014 3:35:20 PM

it varies widely depending on parameters of the ejection (and for that matter, which seat and how big you are).

Ejection is pretty nasty, at best. It's just a nice option to have when the alternatives are all worse.

[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 3:41 PM. Reason : but generally, going through the canopy isn't that big of a deal. The seats have breaker spikes.]

[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 3:43 PM. Reason : I know a dude who punched out of an Intruder, his 'chute never opened, and he survived.]

10/31/2014 3:40:24 PM

I wonder how long it'll take for the media to terrify the entire country with regards to space travel and to force Congress to hold hearings on whether companies should be allowed to do it.

10/31/2014 3:52:10 PM

^ The people involved are well aware of the risks. The last thing any of them would want is for it stop. Spaceflight is never routine and it is never easy and major setbacks occur from time to time and the most tragic obviously are those where there is loss of life. There will be delays but I am confident we will go forward eventually.

10/31/2014 4:00:18 PM

The media is already doing its spin. "2nd commerical crash in a week"

They will scare all the people away who bought seats. The thing will get delayed by a decade.

10/31/2014 4:05:58 PM

a reporter was obviously upset on air and blamed virgin galactic for "killing my friend."

10/31/2014 4:11:05 PM

^for real? I wish i had seen that

10/31/2014 4:12:06 PM

If Congress were to step in, what could they do to something like Virgin Galactic? I feel like a company like that would just say "Okay we are just gonna launch from somewhere outside of the USA then". The people buying seats on these things are rich enough to where they don't really care where they have to travel to.

10/31/2014 4:12:45 PM

I think most of the people who bought seats are smart enough to understand the risk.

10/31/2014 4:14:05 PM

I understand ashton kutcher purchased a seat. Maybe Charlie will finally get to come back to Two Men

10/31/2014 4:19:44 PM

GuruBuckaroo wrote:
It's worth noting that this is the FIRST manned space flight/test flight accident that didn't result in the deaths of the entire crew.

And

Surely these two aborts count as dodging death...
Soyuz 18a - Crew survives 21.3g abort at an alitude of 145 km.
Soyuz T-10a - Crew survives on pad explosion using launch esapce systems.
137 posts | registered Apr 29, 2005

From elsewhere on the net

10/31/2014 4:24:11 PM

Apollo 13? and all of these http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_spaceflight-related_accidents_and_incidents#Non-fatal_incidents_during_spaceflight



[Edited on October 31, 2014 at 4:30 PM. Reason : a]

10/31/2014 4:26:34 PM

Maybe he meant cases in which there was an accident that resulted in the death of some crew but others were able to survive?

10/31/2014 4:34:21 PM

Is there any video of the flight?

10/31/2014 4:47:10 PM

Quote :

"Guess we're still getting reminders about the risks of spacefligh"

for profit spaceflight

10/31/2014 5:54:38 PM

10/31/2014 6:01:10 PM

Remind me why in an age of computer controlled flight we need to bother with pilots on test flights? Is it simply an ego thing that humans want to be the pilots regardless of the situation?

10/31/2014 6:13:32 PM

^

10/31/2014 6:15:17 PM

here, i'll post something stupid now just to keep the pattern going:

Why didn't the pilots, just, you know, not let it blow up?

10/31/2014 6:20:36 PM

10/31/2014 8:17:48 PM

wow and someone survived that?

10/31/2014 9:47:00 PM

Does Richard Branson even fly in these things? The design of the spaceship is very odd.

11/1/2014 12:55:16 AM

Report is that both ejected. Why one died after/during ejection has not been said yet.

If I was to guess, he either landed wrong (probably not) or got hit by debris (more likely)

11/1/2014 8:32:24 AM

RIP 39-year-old Michael Alsbury.

11/1/2014 2:55:36 PM

Sir Richard Branson's comments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEZVCmMOG_U

11/1/2014 4:08:20 PM

Quote :

"Remind me why in an age of computer controlled flight we need to bother with pilots on test flights?"

It's a serious fucking question and the fact that it is going unanswered is speaking volumes.

11/1/2014 4:22:50 PM

You do realize, just because we have UAVs, doesn't mean it's possible, or even practical, to outfit every craft we design to be piloted remotely? Even if it was, at what point do you want to consider a craft safe enough for human flight? This thing had flown 50+ times, with 30+ being on its own power..and before that, every thing was rigorously tested on the ground? This isn't Kerbal Space Program, we're not going straight from design to putting a guy inside.

This is manned spaceflight, there will always be risks.

"“We’re in a risky business and we hope if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men. “ - Gus Grissom, weeks before the Apollo 1 fire.


[Edited on November 1, 2014 at 4:42 PM. Reason : a]

11/1/2014 4:38:51 PM

non sequitor

11/1/2014 4:40:12 PM

Because we have the capability to do something does not make it practical to do something.

11/1/2014 4:41:42 PM

I'm not interested in having an elementary discussion. Someone tell me why a new fuel mixture was tried on an endeavor that is absolutely non-essential to ANYTHING where 1 dude had to die and another one was seriously injured in an era where computers and machines can do what they were doing and more.

11/1/2014 5:09:27 PM

+++++

Quote :

""“We’re in a risky business and we hope if anything happens to us, it will not delay the program. The conquest of space is worth the risk of life. Our God-given curiosity will force us to go there ourselves because in the final analysis only man can fully evaluate the moon in terms understandable to other men. “ - Gus Grissom, weeks before the Apollo 1 fire. "

+

11/1/2014 5:13:35 PM

They are trying to establish a business for billionaires to experience 4 minutes of weightlessness...I guess a test pilot death and another one maimed ain't no thang.

11/1/2014 5:20:27 PM

In an age where everything can be simulated on a computer, why even bother leaving the house?

11/1/2014 5:20:37 PM

Quote :

"They are trying to establish a business for billionaires to experience 4 minutes of weightlessness...I guess a test pilot death and another one maimed ain't no thang. "

The first commercial flight cost about 10,000 in today's dollars and lasted 23 minutes.

11/1/2014 5:24:27 PM