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.

The Personal Spaceflight Federation issued Saturday an updated statement on Thursday’s accident in Mojave. The statement builds upon the brief statement issued by the organization and includes these key bullet points:

• We will always be open and honest to the public and our customers about the risks of our activities and about any incidents that may occur.
• If there is an incident, a proper and methodical investigation will be conducted to determine the cause.
• We will apply the lessons of the investigation now underway and work to prevent this from happening again.
• We will persevere – we believe that we can best honor those pioneers who were involved by carrying on their work.

The statement is signed by representatives of 16 of the PSF’s member organizations, including Burt Rutan of Scaled Composites and Alex Tai of Virgin Galactic. The PSF has 18 members; the two organizations not included in the latest statement are Blue Origin and the Oklahoma Space Industry Development Authority.

A recap of responses to Thursday’s explosion in Mojave:

The Personal Spaceflight Federation released a brief statement about the accident: “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the families and those injured or lost in today’s incident. We will await the results of the investigation before further comment, but we have complete confidence that the causes of the incident will be found in due course.”

The X Prize Foundation also issued a short statement: “We were devastated to learn about the heartbreaking loss that took place at Scaled Composites yesterday. Our hearts go out to all the families in Mojave who are working through this tragedy. It is a sad reality that pushing the boundaries of exploration involves great risk. These people are true pioneers and it is our hope that the spirit of exploration they embody will love on.”

It isn’t on the company’s web site, but the LA Daily News reports that Northrop Grumman, the company in the process of buying Scaled, issued a statement about the accident on Friday. “Northrop Grumman extends our condolences to the people of Scaled Composites and share in their grief and sadness with the loss and injuries of their co-workers,” the Daily News quotes from the statement.

The Space Frontier Foundation issued a press release calling for the “NewSpace movement” to press ahead despite the accident. “Whatever the cause of this tragic event was, they will get to the bottom of it, fix the problem, and then make their spaceship fly,” said Foundation co-founder Jim Muncy. “It will be the best possible way to honor their sacrifice.”

There is supposed to be a statement about the accident on Scaled Composites’ web site, but as of Saturday morning the site appears to be down, perhaps from heavy traffic.

Today’s Bakersfield Californian has a roundup on the latest developments in the explosion Thursday afternoon at Mojave Air and Space Port. Cal/OSHA investigators were at the scene of the accident to begin work studying the cause. According to a spokesperson for the investigators, the accident took place when the Scaled team was venting 4,500 kg (10,000 lbs) of nitrous oxide in a 15-second test of a propellant injector system. The investigation is expected to take up to six months.

Three people remain in the hospital in Bakersfield, two in critical condition and one in serious. The names of the injured haven’t been released, although the Californian identifies one of them as Evgeniy Gisin. The paper also has profiles of the three people who died in the accident: Eric Blackwell, Todd Ivens, and Charles Glen May.