SpaceShip Two Crash Probably Pilot Error

Long range camera view of Spaceship Two with twin tail booms rotating up. Credit: SpaceflightNow.com/Clay Center Observatory/Virgin Galactic.

It's a fact: right after the motor ignited, SpaceShipTwo's twin-boom tails began rotating into the position used for descending into the atmosphere from space, causing the craft to become unstable and break apart. While the possibility exists that the cause was pilot error, the chief of the National Transportation Safety Board does not want anyone jumping to conclusions. The investigations will continue for some time, and engineers and scientists will be poring over the data from the flight recorders and cameras. However, this development helps move the concern away from the motor itself.

It seems that the lever used to release the booms was activated by the co-pilot, who died in last week's crash. The pilot was able to free himself as the craft came apart, and safely parachuted to the ground. He suffered injuries from the accident and is recovering in the hospital.

SpaceShip Two Crashes

Some of the remains of SpaceShip Two on the Mojave Desert floor. The wreckage area is about five miles long. 

Commercial Space efforts took another hit this week after the Antares rocket explosion, when Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two crashes in the Mojave Desert, California during a test flight. Co-pilot Michael Alsbery, a test pilot was killed. Pilot Peter Siebold, who is also Director of Flight Operations for the company, survived but was in serious medical condition in the hospital.

Sequence of disaster. Clockwise, L-R: Spaceship Two separates from White Knight mothership(center of photo); Engine malfunction; Spaceship Two breaks up. Credit: Kenneth Brown/Spaceflight Now.

Investigations have begun by the National Transportation Safety Board, but early speculation is that the problem started after the rocketplane separated from its carrier aircraft (named White Knight, a twin-fuselaged and twin-cockpit jet plane) and ignited its experimental rocket motor. The spaceship appeared to break up and the wreckage spread over a large area of the desert. There is not a lot of information being released for now, as the investigations get under way, but there were many cameras and instruments recording the flight so there is a good chance the the problem will be identified and corrected. For now, it seems that some witnessed reported seeing a parachute, and the pilot is alive and conscious at the hospital.

On the runway earlier that day: White Knight mothership, with Spaceship Two hung between the twin fuselages in the center. This flight would be a test of the new rocket motor variation.

While the crash and fatality have shocked the space community, most people seem resolute to continue testing and flying to begin easy trips into space. Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, promises to continue flight testing although the second spacecraft currently in production won't be ready for flight testing until next year.

Advances in Commercial Space

Antares rocket moves to the launch pad.

Some significant steps are being made in the effort for private companies (as in not government agencies like NASA) this week. Let's start with the imminent launch of the Antares rocket. While the attention lately has been on the obvious success of SpaceX and their Dragon capsule and Falcon rocket,  they'll soon have some competition. The Antares rocket is built by Orbital Sciences, the company which has made successful small satellite launches with the Pegasus winged rocket which is carried aloft by a large jetliner, then released and launched into low orbit. They also have made launches with the Minotaur, a small satellite delivery system based on surplus military missiles. Now, the company is pinning high hopes on the Antares, a larger rocket launched in conventional manner. 

Antares being lifted to upright position on the pad. Both Antares pics by NASA.

Unlike SpaceX's use of a pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida, the Orbital Science team has built their test launch facility at Wallops Island, Virginia on the Atlantic Coast. They are using Pad 0A, which is owned by the newly created Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority which has named their part of the Wallops Island facility, the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport. Wallops Island is famous for its use  of launching sounding rockets and small satellites into the upper atmosphere and low orbit since the early 1960's. Now, OS plans to launch the Antares into low Earth Orbit in their bid to become the second company able to deliver supplies to the International Space Station. Eventually they want to launch satellites weighing up to six tons into Earth orbit. You can read all about the upcoming launch, scheduled for April 17-18, at SpaceFlight Now's website: http://spaceflightnow.com/

Meanwhile:

Artist creation of Boeing CST-100 capsule on Atlas V rocket. Credit: Boeing.

Hurray for Boeing! They have just recently completed the Preliminary Design Review for mating their CST-100 space capsule to the Atlas V rocket. The adapter ring will connect the wider bottom of the crew capsule's service module with the obviously narrower upper stage of the Atlas rocket.  Although just an artists view at the moment, the picture above looks so real we can easily foresee what we'll be looking at when the first test missions launch in 2017 (hopefully earlier). It's looking like Boeing may become the first commercial provider to launch not just cargo, but astronauts to the ISS. 

Spaceship 2 in a test glide releasing nitrogen gas. Credit: Virgin Galactic.

We're getting much closer to the power-up tests for the new winged spaceship that will haul paying customers into sub-orbital spaceflight. Virgin Galactic has been drop-gliding its new spacecraft recently, and recent tests have been fully fueled although the rocket motor was not ignited. Rumors say the test may come as early as this month.

You can read more about SpaceShip 2, and Boeing's progress at the website for Parabolic Arc:

http://www.parabolicarc.com/

Rocket Summer

Up, up and away for the Delta-4. Credit: ULA.

For rocket lovers, we live in a wonderful time for rocket watching. Every summer is a rocket summer. On July 29 rocket fans watched United Launch Alliance and the US Air Force launch a satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Blasting off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station (adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center), the Delta-4 Heavy lifted a classified NRO satellite (NROL-15) into orbit. 

Liftoff from LC-37. Credit: ULA.

The Delta-4 Heavy is the most powerful variant of the Delta family of rockets (scroll down to the article on the Atlas-5 launch for the graphic display of the Delta family of rockets). It's even more powerful now, with this latest launch featuring new versions of the RL-68 rocket engines, the RL-68A's. These new engines feature an additional 36-39,000 pounds of thrust for a total of 797,000 pounds of thrust. The distinguishing feature of the Delta-4 Heavy is the addition of the two side boosters, which are liquid-fueled instead of the commonly-seen solid rocket boosters. 

With this Delta-4 Heavy launch, it means we've seen recently a launch of the Delta-4, the Atlas-5, the Long March variant for Shenzhou-9, with upcoming launches of the Soyuz and another Atlas-5 in July.

Rocket Motor Two tests in the desert. Credit: Virgin Galactic.

And it's not just rocket flights, either. There's plenty of rocket engine testing going on in the race for commercial rocket development. Virgin Galactic is preparing for the first tourists flights into sub-orbit, and continuing testing of the Rocket Two engine at their facilities in the Mojave desert.

ATK fires up in the Utah desert. Credit: ATK

ATK continues working feverishly to advance the Liberty rocket system. In northern Utah at their facility near Brigham City, ATK fired the GEM-60 solid rocket motor which will power the first stage of Liberty. Liberty is expected to fly in 2014.

Liberty rocket and capsule. Art by ATK.

In fact, it's not just rocket engines that fly the machines, it's computers as well. ATK has recently completed a technical review of its program software with NASA, fulfilling another step in the long checklist of items towards launch. ATK expects to have two unmanned launches in 2014 and 2015, with the first crewed launch in 2015. Other companies will have to press onward quickly to match this schedule, should ATK manage to maintain this pace.