Richard Branson’s plans to run the first commercial space flight service were thrown into disarray yesterday after an explosion during a test of the rocket’s propulsion system left three workers dead and three seriously wounded with shrapnel injuries and burns.
Witnesses at the world’s first commercial spaceport at Mojave in California, said the explosion was accompanied by a blast that sounded like a 500lb bomb.
The accident happened at 2.34pm local time on Thursday during tests of the propulsion system used in the new SpaceShipTwo - the prototype for Virgin Galactic’s eight-seater private rockets.
The system is hybrid, using both solid fuels and liquid oxidisers, a combination chosen paradoxically because it is safer than solid fuels alone. Two workers were killed at the scene while the third died later in hospital.The billionaire entrepreneur has invested at least $200m (£99m) in the groundbreaking work of Scaled Composites, the company leading the mission that launched the first private manned flight into space in October 2004.
Sir Richard’s spokesman Will Whitehorn yesterday declined to comment on the incident until it had been properly investigated.
The blast is a setback for Burt Rutan, the maverick and secretive aerospace designer who is pioneering the development of the rockets. Described by those in the business as a studious, quiet genius, Mr Rutan made his name creating experimental planes before he branched out into private space travel.
Clearly shaken, he told a press conference that the accident was “a very big deal”. He said he didn’t know what went wrong: “We felt it was completely safe.”
The accident comes at a bad time for his company as Scaled Composites is in the closing stages of being sold to another firm, Northrop Grumman.It is also awkward timing for Sir Richard who has pledged to start commercial space flights in 2009. The inquiry into the incident is likely to cause delays, though some analysts estimated they may be no more than six to nine months.
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