Virgin Galactic spacecraft crash kills one

[joshcryer]

70. Joel Glenn Brenner basically summed it up:

Many others have reported the same, Parabolic Arc had some damning tweets: https://twitter.com/spacecom

@SpaceShipTwo @VirginGalactic Plastic/nitrous engine had a hard start on the test stand in May 2013, 3 weeks after first SS2 powered flight.

The engine blew apart, the rocket casing and nozzle ended up on the desert floor far from the test stand. #SpaceShipTwo @virgingalactic

It's too early to say exactly what happened today, but it's possible based on what we saw the engine suffered a hard start. #SpaceShipTwo

I have unpublished photos of the aftermath of the May 2013 test stand accident. I will likely post those when I can. #SpaceShipTwo

I had deep concerns over both the new plastic/nitrous oxide engine and so did other sources familiar with the testing. #SpaceShipTwo

The concerns were three fold. One, that it wasn't being tested sufficiently on the ground before it was flown. #SpaceShipTwo

Second: that modifications required to ship to accommodate the new engine introduced additional complexity and failure modes. #SpaceShipTwo

Third, handful of test flights they were doing with new #SpaceShipTwo engine before putting Richard and Sam Branson aboard were insufficient

Let me stress2 things: one, we don't know what happened yet, so I'm not making a snap judgment about what caused the accident #SpaceShipTwo

Second, these concerns about the new engine were not mine alone. Folks much smarter and knowledgble than me were worried. #SpaceShipTwo

I predict you will be hearing a lot more about these concerns and the problems they were having in the days and weeks ahead #SpaceShipTwo

I've been deeply concerned for months that this could happen. It disturbed my waking hours and seeped into my dreams. #SpaceShipTwo

If Branson wants to see the program survive he needs to open up his check book. This will be the fourth dead person attributable to the program (the Scaled Composites accident in 2007 on similar engines). The engines are a dud, the drawing board needs to be gone back to.