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Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash — Parallax Forums

Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash

ercoerco Posts: 20,256
edited 2014-11-03 07:04 in General Discussion
Not known yet if 2 pilots escaped. Bad week for spacecraft.

http://news.yahoo.com/virgin-galactic-spaceship-crashes-during-california-test-flight-184004824--finance.html

Comments

  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2014-10-31 12:15
    Wow, not much information there at all.

    edit: 1 person dead, the other seriously injured. An "anomaly" was cited as the cause.
  • ValeTValeT Posts: 308
    edited 2014-10-31 12:56
    Wow. Very scary.

    Wonder why it happened.
  • jonesjones Posts: 281
    edited 2014-10-31 13:14
    Some photographer was quoted as saying it exploded just after it was dropped from the carrier, presumably when the rocket motor lit. They were testing a new fuel for the rocket motor on this flight.
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2014-10-31 13:50
    It uses a hybrid rocket engine. The fuel is solid. Unlike a common solid rocket engine this solid fuel does not burn on its own - it does not contain oxidizer. A hybrid engine uses a solid fuel and a liquid oxidizer. It has the advantage of the engine being completely safe to handle and work with because there is zero risk of combustion, until of course the liquid oxidizer is introduced. I read that they were trying a new plastic solid fuel for this flight.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2014-10-31 14:23
    Too bad about this. It looked like Branson may have been on to something. I still love that guy for his outspoken ways!!!!
  • GadgetmanGadgetman Posts: 2,436
    edited 2014-10-31 16:00
    There could possibly have been a bubble in the casting of the solid fuel?
    And if that bubble led towards the side, it could theoretically crack open the casing and in effect, rip the craft apart.

    Or one of the mounts failed?

    Maybe the oxidiser tank ruptured?

    For now we can only guess.
  • localrogerlocalroger Posts: 3,451
    edited 2014-11-01 16:42
    A long and rather sorry explanation of what happened, posted the day before the crash:

    http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/10/30/apollo-ansari-hobbling-effects-giant-leaps/

    tl;dr excerpt:

    After the Ansari X Prize, some people tried to convince Rutan to replace the hybrid with a reusable liquid engine. He rejected the advice. Rutan came out of SpaceShipOne’s short flight test program believing the hybrid engine was simple and safe, and that it could be easily scaled up for the much larger SpaceShipTwo. He was wrong on both counts.

    The first belief was shattered on a hot summer afternoon of July 26, 2007. Scaled engineers were conducting a cold flow of nitrous oxide that did not involve igniting any fuel. Three seconds into the 15-second test the nitrous tank burst, resulting in a massive explosion that destroyed the test stand and killed three engineers. Three others were injured.
    ...
    Once engine tests began again in April 2009, engineers would discover that Rutan’s other assumption was wrong. The hybrid engine just didn’t scale very well. The larger the engine became, the more vibrations and oscillations it produced. As engineers struggled to find a solution, Scaled Composites and Virgin Galactic quietly began work on alternative motor designs.

    The failure of the hybrid to scale led to another problem. SpaceShipTwo had already been designed and built. The dimensions of the ship, the size of the passenger and crew cabin, the center of gravity…all those were already set. So, engineers now had to fit an engine within those parameters that could still get the vehicle into space.
  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-11-03 07:04
    Some new news on the crash:

    http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/virgin-spaceships-descent-system-deployed-early/ar-BBcH8Uv?ocid=iehp
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