Safety inspectors in California have cited Scaled Composites for being at fault for the explosion that killed three employees at their Mojave Air and Space Port. The explosion occurred in July 2007 and stunned the X-Prize winning company. They now face a maximum fine of $25,310.
Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composite company has been going from strength to strength in recent years. In 2004 the company was successful at launching their SpaceShipOne to an altitude of 114km, claiming the $10 million Ansari X-Prize in 2004. Since this historic win, Rutan has formed a powerful alliance with British businessman Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. Branson is currently heading the construction of the world’s first Space Port in the New Mexico desert, using SpaceShipOne’s successor, the larger SpaceShipTwo, as the principal craft to take 6 people into space. Stowed under a WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, SpaceShipTwo is designed for a conventional take-off until the pair are at approximately 15 km in altitude. At this point, the pair separate, allowing SpaceShipTwo to accelerate to 2500 mph by firing its single hybrid rocket engine. Weightlessness will be achieved, giving space tourists an idea of what it feels like to be in a low Earth orbit.
Tragically, three personnel working on the Scaled Composites site in the Mojave Desert last July were killed in an accident during tests involving a rocket propellant. The report from safety officials state that the company failed to provide “effective information and training of the health and physical hazards associated with nitrous oxide,” the fuel used to power the rockets. Since the incident safety measures have been stepped up and it is hoped that this sad event won’t delay the 2009 launch of the first space tourism flights by Virgin Galactic.
Source: Space.com
Hi Tom. Apologies, you are totally right, thanks for spotting that horrible typo 🙂 Need to increase my brain:typing ratio…
Cheers, Ian
Burt’s name is spelled Rutan, assuming he got it right on his own website: http://scaled.com/
Earthlings,
You will suffer more than a $25k fine the next time you attempt to build an intergalactic invasion fleet.
(I looked at it and saw that it was “nitrous oxide”… isn’t that laughing gas?)…
Anyway, it’s sad that these people died.
True, nitrous oxide is also called “laughing gas”. Under pressure, though, it can be used in rocket engines (as an oxidizer, I believe). The Mythbusters used it in conjunction with salami and black powder, to build a rocket, which had about 800 pounds of lifting force.
Back in the early 60’s [1960-64] I worked for Bell Aerosystems. We manufactured the the acent engine for the lunar modual [it was also used on the Titan ICBM]. It used UDMH and Nitrous Oxide and propellants. I am very formilar with it. It’s gas is heavier than air. In liquid form it will instanousely combust with any hydrocarbon or organic chenical. I boils at AMB Atomsphere/temps. When it contacts water it forms Nitric Acid. Someone did not have the knowledge to handle the chemical.
Compared to UDMH, this stuff is very safe. The explosion may have been a possible BLEVE – something we in the hobby rocketry world dont have to worry about because our nitrous oxide tanks are much smaller.
A sad story and somewhat of a freak-accident compared to the far greater dangers of high speed flight and reentry.
The fines still do not address what went wrong on 7-26-07. Not that it will change the lives of us who have lost our loved ones, but it would be nice to know what caused this explosion.