I didn’t receive the original email blast from Scaled Composites about the health of Burt Rutan, but, like no doubt many readers, wanted to pass along my best wishes for a speedy recovery to him after undergoing open heart surgery earlier this month. Rutan was suffering from something called “constrictive pericardium”, which meant he suffered from “extreme fatigue” for five months—so much so, he tells MSNBC, that his participation in the Virgin Galactic design unveiling in New York last month was “real dicey”. (I last saw Rutan in person six months ago when he spoke at the Univ. of Alabama; at that time he appeared healthy.)

Many of the news reports about the SS2/WK2 design unveiling cover just the basics, repeating a lot of information that was already known about the effort. There are a few nuggets tucked away in the articles, though:

• Perhaps the biggest questions are when SS2 will fly, and what the status of investigation into the July accident at Mojave Airport is. MSNBC’s Alan Boyle devotes a post to those questions, but finds no firm answers. Burt Rutan told MSNBC that the exact cause of the July accident is still unknown, and that has obviously delayed work on SS2’s propulsion system. Virgin is also sticking to its belief of not stating a specific schedule for flights, with company president Will Whitehorn telling the New York Times, “We don’t want to make promises that we can’t meet. We’re in a race with nobody, apart from a race with safety.”
• The Wall Street Journal [subscription required] plays up one aspect of the WK2 design that had been previously hinted at: its use as a platform for launch small satellites into orbit. The specifics of such a launch system, including the type of rocket that would be used and the cost, aren’t mentioned. The WSJ article states, “Known as an ardent environmentalist, the British billionaire apparently was attracted to the notion that an alternative satellite-launch system would produce less pollution that today’s massive liquid-fueled or solid-fueled rockets.” Pollution, though, is not a major concern for satellite launches, and also depends on the type of propellant used.
• Scaled hopes to build 40 SS2 and 15 WK2 vehicles over the next ten years, according to SPACE.com; the current contract with Virgin calls for five SS2 and two WK2 vehicles. Also: SS2 will feature large (45-centimeter) windows for passengers to look out at the Earth.
• The current economic turmoil hasn’t affected sales, Reuters reports. Whitehorn said Virgin just had its best month of sales: “Clearly a lot of people want to get away from Planet Earth at the moment.”
• There are other design tweaks and features that Scaled is not disclosing for the time being to avoid tipping off any competitors. Rutan: “There are unique, new ideas scattered throughout the spaceship.”
• Virgin has put 80 of its customers through a high-G centrifuge test and only two could not take the G-forces. Among those who passed included James Lovelock, the scientist of “Gaia” fame, who is 88 years old.

Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites will be formally unveiling the design of SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft, White Knight Two, at an event in New York today. Interesting, there hasn’t been much buzz leading up to this event: a preview in the UK newspaper The Telegraph yesterday is one of the few advance stories about the event. Attendance at the New York event appears to be very limited as well. I was unable to secure an invitation to the event despite considerable effort, and one company official said they were “heavily oversubscribed” (which begs the question of why they simply didn’t secure a bigger venue, but, oh well…)

This design is thought to be somewhat different than the artist’s conceptions that Virgin has been showing off for over a year. In a speech in Alabama last August, Burt Rutan said SS2 would have a low wing instead of the high wing on SpaceShipOne, and that WK2 would have four jet engines instead of two. We’ll see later today if that’s accurate, and what other design changes are in store.

The California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (aka Cal/OSHA) has fined Scaled Composites for safety violations identified in the aftermath of the July accident that killed three employees at Mojave Airport. Cal/OSHA fined Scaled $25,780 for failing to properly train its employees about the dangers of nitrous oxide, the chemical that is used as the oxidizer on its hybrid rocket engines. Although the summary of the accident has not been completed (nor is any information about the fines posted on the Cal/OSHA web site, as far as I can find), Cal/OSHA officials confirmed to the AP that the July 27 accident was a nitrous oxide explosion.

The report should allow Scaled to help close the door on the accident (although it’s unclear if the company faces any additional government action or lawsuits from the injured or the families of the dead). It also comes less than a week before Virgin Galactic and Scaled unveil the new designs of White Knight Two and SpaceShipTwo in New York.

That’s the designation that Virgin Galactic is giving to the coming year, according to a Flight International article that reports on a speech given by Will Whitehorn on Thursday at a space conference in the UK. Virgin anticipates a busy year, highlighted by the first test flight of the White Knight 2 carrier aircraft in July. The airplane is 60% complete now and is scheduled to be fully assembled by June; the aircraft’s “last” engine will be delivered in January. Virgin is also planning to publicly unveil the designs for White Knight 2 (which Whitehorn says resembles the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, also built by Scaled Composites) and SpaceShipTwo on January 23. The report doesn’t indicate where or how that will take place, but previously Virgin officials had said they were planning an event in New York in January. The report doesn’t provide a schedule for the development of SpaceShipTwo, other than to say that the first vehicle is currently 50% complete. (Also no word on what Burt Rutan, who is notorious for not releasing vehicle development schedules, thinks of all of these announced plans.)

Whitehorn added that Virgin is considering also using White Knight 2 or a larger successor, White Knight 3, as the first stage for an orbital launch system. That system, which would also involve a two-stage rocket, would be intended to put smallsats into orbit for $3 million.

The public right now has only a right idea of what SpaceShipTwo and its carrier aircraft, White Knight Two, will look like, based primarily on the promotional animations and images released by Virgin Galactic. Flightglobal.com took the interesting step of using those images and modifying them based on comments on the design made by Burt Rutan last month in a speech in Alabama (which I wrote about and was cited in the Flightglobal.com article.) The revised illustration takes into account the wingspan of WK2 (43 meters) and that it will have four engines; the SS2 design now incorporates a low wing instead of a mid or high wing, which Rutan said was shifted to reduce a dihedral effect on SS1 that caused control problems.

How accurate these new illustrations are is anybody’s guess. The good news, though, is that we won’t have to wait much longer to find out what these vehicles really look like: Virgin Galactic president Will Whitehorn told Flight International that the company plans to unveil the designs of WK2 and SS2 at an event in New York in January.

I negelected yesterday to post a link to my article in The Space Review about Burt Rutan’s speech in Alabama and subsequent interview. The article speaks largely for itself: Rutan remains committed to the development of SpaceShipTwo, although the timeline, and even some of the technical details of the propulsion system, are uncertain at this time.

I was able to make it down to Alabama this weekend to attend the symposium where Burt Rutan spoke this morning. His prepared remarks did not directly address recent events (either the accident last month or the acquisition of Scaled Composites by Northrop Grumman, which closed yesterday). However, I was able to talk with him for a few minutes after his speech. Some highlights:

• They have yet to determine a cause for the explosion last month, which remains under investigation.
• Work on the propulsion program remains on hold at the moment, with future plans uncertain, but work in other areas, such as the carrier aircraft, continue
• The accident had been tough for both Rutan and the company, because this is the first time they’ve had a casualty in any of their programs. They have received considerable support from the community, though.
• The acquisition will not have any material changes on Scaled or how it operates, something Northrop specifically requested.

I will write up some more notes on his speech when I have a chance (I’m using a public Internet terminal during a brief lunch break), including, most likely, a detailed article in Monday’s edition of The Space Review.

It shouldn’t be surprising that an event like last week’s explosion in Mojave has resulted in its share of both good and bad reporting. However, an article in ArabianBusiness.com is a particularly egregious example of poor reporting on this topic. The article argues that Richard Branson’s “entire commercial space tourism dream is in tatters” because of the explosion, “and nobody can guarantee whether Virgin Galactic will ever make it into space.” True, but few things in life, as the saying goes, are guaranteed.

So lets look at some of the facts and statements in the article. An example: “Branson has invested US$600m into the venture and taken a staggering US$200m in advance ticket sales.” Both are, by any estimate, wild exaggerations. Virgin officials have previously stated that it will spend $225-250 million by the time it begins commercial operations. As recently as last month, at the NewSpace 2007 conference, Virgin’s Alex Tai said that the company has taken in about $25 million in deposits.

Another howler: “The company’s investigation into the incident could take nearly two months, but before then, a separate inquiry by NASA may decide to revoke Virgin Galactic’s licence to develop rockets at the base.” Where to begin? First of all, NASA isn’t involved in this process at all, in granting licenses or otherwise. It’s also unclear what sort of license you would need “to develop rockets at the base”, short of, perhaps, some sort of permits regarding the use or storage of particular chemicals and the like.

And another, right after the previous: “Given the growing speculation that some parts of SpaceShipTwo were based on the same design as the doomed Challenger Space Shuttle, that remains a strong possibility.” All you can say to that is, huh?

Part of the article is based on comments made by an unnamed “senior Virgin Galactic executive”, including this quote: “if NASA steps in then obviously that kind of decision is out of our hands.” This ignorance about NASA’s (non-)role in regulating the industry suggests that this person is not a senior exec with the company, or even affiliated with the company at all.

There’s more, but at this point it would be piling on. (Although perhaps George French of Rocketplane Inc. will appreciate the promotion to “billionaire”, not to mention Geoff Sheerin to “tycoon”.) The main question is: do we ascribe this article to ignorance or malice?

Courtesy of the NSS is the following information about a fund to support the families of those killed and injured in the Thursday explosion in Mojave:

Scaled has announced information on a fund for those who wish to support the families of the deceased as well as the injured and their families.

The National Space Society urges all of its members and the broader space community to give generously to support these heroes.

Please send contributions to:
Scaled Family Support Fund
c/o Scaled Composites
1624 Flight Line
Mojave, CA. 93501

Acct # 04157-66832

Wire transfer ABA Routing #1220-0066-1

Please make checks payable to the account
number or to the name of the fund.

The NSS has also issued its own statement about the accident:

America was built on the courage of those who dared to explore new frontiers. From Lewis and Clark to the Apollo astronauts, great men and women have tested themselves against the frontiers of their age.

In the course of their efforts, these heroes may pay the ultimate cost, as they did yesterday in Mojave. When that happens, it is the highest duty of all of us to care for the injured, to mourn the departed, and to care for the families. An honest investigation must be conducted to learn what went wrong, and to fix the cause so that it does not happen again.

But when the investigation finished, our duty is to carry on the work of those heroes, to redouble our efforts to scale the peaks that they were climbing. That is what we learned from Apollo 1. That is what they would want.

The frontier of space is far from tamed. The men and women of Scaled Composites are engaged in one of the great efforts of our time: opening space for all humanity. That is a noble pursuit, perhaps the most noble of all, and we must all be thankful for their work, and for their sacrifice.

Let us not shirk from what happened yesterday. Professionals will find the cause. The program will continue. The effort to open space cannot be stopped. Now is the time to honor those men by honoring the cause that they were engaged in. Those of us who are part of this great endeavor, whether as participants or as supporters, let us carry forward this message of perseverance to our own communities, to our elected leaders and to the media. Now more than ever, the nation needs to hear your voices.