Space Transportation Sub-Orbital and Space Aircraft

Space is Hard as Virgin Galactic and Orbital Sciences Can Attest

October 31, 2014

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October 31, 2014 – In one week we have seen two commercial space companies experience disasters. With Orbital Sciences it involved the loss of a rocket and resupply capsule destined for the International Space Station. With Virgin Galactic, however, the tragedy involves a loss of life.

Today during a flight test of SpaceShipTwo with two pilots on board, the sub-orbital craft exploded. The incident occurred shortly after the craft dropped from its mother ship, White Knight 2. At that point the engines, using a new rocket fuel that had undergone successful ground testing, were ignited. It appears the firing of the engines caused the explosion. One pilot is dead and the other seriously injured.

The picture of wreckage from the explosion was shot from a helicopter at the scene.

SpaceShipTwo is the next generation suborbital vehicle designed by Burt Rutan, winner of the Ansari XPrize in 2004. The fuel developed by Rutan’s team at Scaled Composites during the contest to win the Ansari XPrize proved to be problematic, causing some engine instability. It consisted of hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB), a rubber-based solid combined with a nitrous oxide oxidizer.

When first tested in SpaceShipTwo test firings longer than 20 seconds exhibited problems. So the search for a replacement began. The new fuel a thermoplastic polyamide was introduced in May 2014. Ground testing of burns up to 60 seconds revealed no anomalies. But today, in an inflight test something went very wrong.

Commercial space companies have largely enjoyed success in recent years pointing to a future when humans will be able to get to space faster and cheaper. This week, however, is an eye opener. As NASA, Roscosmos, ESA and other national space operations can attest, getting to space is hard and Orbital and Virgin Galactic now know exactly just how difficult.

For Virgin Galactic this will seriously impede its plans for commercial suborbital flights that were expected to commence either in late 2014 or early next year. Richard Branson, Virgin founder, along with his family, was supposed to take the first ride. Virgin has 700 hopeful customers who have booked future flights on SpaceShipTwo (seen in the picture below shot by Scaled Composites’ Jason Divenere from an earlier test flight). Each passenger was going to pay $250,000 U.S. to fly aboard the now destroyed craft. How long it will take to build its replacement? Will Virgin be able to proceed? At this point a pilot is dead and another is gravely injured, and a second commercial space company is facing the consequences of an unforeseen disaster.