[FPSPACE] More on Mojave Desert explosion that killed 3

[pjp]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070727/ap_on_re_us/airport_explosion

 

 

Explosion kills 3 at Mojave airport

 

By ALICIA CHANG, AP Science Writer 47 minutes ago 

MOJAVE, Calif. - An explosion that killed three at a Mojave Desert airport
during testing of a new space tourism vehicle has shaken a small community
that prides itself as the hometown of the first private space launch. 

The blast Thursday at a remote test facility belonging to Scaled Composites
LLC critically injured three other employees working on a propellant system
for the vehicle.

The company, headed by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, made history
in 2004 when its SpaceShipOne became the first private manned rocket to
reach space. Since that milestone, Rutan has partnered with British
billionaire Richard Branson to build a fleet of commercial vehicles dubbed
SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.

The accident occurred during a test of the flow of nitrous oxide through an
injector in the course of testing components for a new rocket motor for the
SpaceShipTwo. The chemical was at room temperature and under pressure, Rutan
said.

Stuart Witt, the airport's general manager who was in his office when the
explosion happened, said the airport is home to several commercial space
startups and is constantly buzzing with rocket and engine testing.

"What we do is inherently risky," Witt said. "These are not the days we look
forward to, but we deal with it."

The airport is an important part of the unincorporated community of about
4,000 people, said Bill Deaver, publisher of weekly Mojave Desert News. It
employs about 1,500 people, he said, and is the country's first inland
spaceport certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

A Kern County Medical Center official said two people died at the scene and
one later died at the hospital after surgery. The three injured suffered
numerous shrapnel wounds. Two were in critical condition and one was in
serious condition early Friday, the official said.

Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn said the company expressed its
sympathies to the families and declined further comment until Scaled
completes its investigation.

Rutan, who arrived at Mojave after the accident, is tightlipped about his
projects and gave little information about the test. But he said it had been
done safely many times during the SpaceShipOne program and had been done
once before for the SpaceShipTwo program.

Authorities closed off access to the blast site in a remote unpaved area
about a quarter-mile beyond an airplane storage area. Video news helicopters
showed wrecked equipment and vehicles at the airport in the high desert
north of Los Angeles near Edwards Air Force Base.

Rutan had been secretly developing SpaceShipTwo in a hangar closed to the
public. He had not publicly released a schedule for completion of the
design, testing and first launch. Rutan said the accident would not change
that.

Branson has invested at least $200 million for a fleet of Rutan's spaceships
to send paying tourists some 62 miles above Earth for $200,000 to experience
the view from space and five minutes of weightlessness. Earlier this year,
Branson told a trade show the new ship would be ready within a year and,
after a year of flight tests, would have its first commercial launch in
2009.

Aerospace and defense contractor Northrop Grumman Corp. owns 40 percent of
Scaled and recently agreed to acquire the rest of it. The deal is awaiting
regulatory approval and should close next month.

Northrop Grumman spokesman Dan McClain said the company had no comment on
the explosion.