I was at the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin on Friday and saw the Rocket Racing League’s first vehicle fly during an afternoon performance. I have a collection of images from the day, including both the flight and some items at their exhibit, including the second racer (which, RRL officials said, will begin flying next week.) More insights to come.

On Friday Scaled Composites issued an accident investigation update about last July’s propulsion system test accident that killed three company employees and injured three others. The statement does not indicate a cause of the accident, and notes that a Cal OSHA investigation that wrapped up in January did not determine a cause. The statement does note that Scaled is making a number of changes, including:

• Conducting increased compatibility testing between N2O and any materials that contact it in the tank and eliminate incompatible materials in the flow path;
• Revising cleaning procedures to further minimize the risk of contaminants in the system;
• Replacing the composite liner in the N2O tank with a metal tank liner;
• Diluting N2O vapor in the tank with Nitrogen or another inert gas to decrease its volatility and/or act as a pressurant;
• Designing additional safety systems for the N2O tank to minimize the danger due to tank overpressure; for example, a burst disk feature; and
• Increasing the amount of testing during the development program to demonstrate that these design changes, and any improvements to system components, prevent the sequence of events
  that led to the accident.

The statement does appear to indicate that Scaled is continuing with a nitrous hybrid propulsion system for SS2.

Well, someone is not too happy with the concept of personal spaceflight. In a letter to the editor in Saturday’s Washington Post, C. Anthony Altar of Garrett Park, Maryland, uses the WhiteKnightTwo rollout to complain that personal spaceflight is “selfish excess” that should be prohibited. Such travelers, or, rather, “eco-hypocrites”, “burn toluene and other pollutants” on their flights (not sure about the toluene, but no matter). “We cannot accept a narcissism that trumps common sense and pollutes the fragile atmosphere the rest of us must breathe,” he argues. “Public outrage can mobilize our government to outlaw this kind of activity.”

Dr. Altar (yes, he is President and Chief Scientific Officer at Psychiatric Genomics) is more than a little off base here. Yes, suborbital spaceflights will likely release some degree, however small, of pollutants—many human activities do. However, the small size of the vehicles, short burn time, and relatively low flight rate means that such flights will have a miniscule footprint on the environment compared to commercial aviation. Perhaps if he is really concerned about protecting the “fragile atmosphere”, he can try to “mobilize out government to outlaw” commercial aviation.