Spaceport America officials in New Mexico were scheduled to announce the winner of architectural and engineering contracts for the new commercial spaceport, but, in light of Thursday’s accident in Mojave, that announcement has been postponed until a date TBD. “In light of the tragedy at Mojave Air and Space Port, we feel that it is important now to turn our complete attention, prayers and thoughts to the families and friends of the workers who lost their lives,” outgoing New Mexico Spaceport Authority executive director Rick Homans said in a statement quoted by the Las Cruces Sun-News.

Here’s a brief summary of what’s known about the explosion that took place Thursday afternoon at Mojave Air and Space Port, based on reports in the Bakersfield Californian, LA Times, and LA Daily News, the most detailed accounts so far:

• Three people have been killed, two at the scene of the explosion and one later, after surgery.
• Three are injured, two in critical condition and one in serious condition.
• All of the casualties are employees of Scaled Composites, and the explosion took place at a test site operated by the company.
• The explosion took place while the workers were performing a “cold flow” test to see how nitrous oxide flowed through the system. The nitrous oxide was under pressure but there was nothing to ignite the propellant.
• Burt Rutan, at a press conference Thursday night, said that they had performed similar tests a number of times in the past without incident and believed it to be safe. He said he couldn’t speculate on the cause of the explosion.
• Rutan refused to comment on what effect this would have on the development of SpaceShipTwo, saying that the company has declined to answer questions about that development for a year and a half. “I suddenly don’t have a change for that.”