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[Maninthemirror]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/vi...aceshiptwo-crashes-during-flight-test-n238376

During the test. the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle," the company said in a statement. "The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft landed safely. Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time."

Two pilots fly in SpaceShipTwo's cockpit during a test. Those pilots are equipped with parachutes, and after the anomaly, chutes were reportedly sighted over the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, the base from which SpaceShipTwo and its WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane took off.

Photographer Ken Brown, who was covering the test flight, told NBC News that he saw a midflight explosion and later came upon SpaceShipTwo debris scattered across a small area of the desert.

Update

One pilot is dead, the other is seriously injured, authorities told the Associated Press.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Were there any passengers on this tourism shuttle?

 

[Fireblend]

Oh man

 

[Renzoku]

God damn it.

 

[Vincent Alexander]

I cant see this ending happy, but I'll cross my fingers.

 

[woolley]

Were there any passengers on this tourism shuttle?

Nope. Only the two pilots.

 

[ThreePiMatt]

Article I pulled up said it crashed in the Mojave Desert.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/techn...in-flight-problem/ar-BBceDDu?ocid=ansnewsap11

 

[Maninthemirror]

Bear in mind, this is the 2nd Major Space related crash in 3 days.

 

[CheesecakeRecipe]

Not been a good week for the high-fliers club.

 

[MidnightCowboy]

Doesn't exactly instill confidence in consumers. Hopefully the pilots bailed and are safe.

 

[Exterminieren]

Awful. I'm hearing on Twitter that one pilot's dead, but that's not confirmed.

Tragic for the loss of life, and for possibly being a heavy blow for commercial space travel.

 

[SteveWinwood]

Space travel is extremely dangerous.

We're still in our baby steps leaving anywhere outside our atmosphere, we will fall over a few times.

 

[sfedai0]

Wait, the plane landed safely but there were chutes deployed and debris reported?

 

[Rhomega Beta]

Were there any passengers on this tourism shuttle?

This was a test, so no.

 

[CitizenVectron]

There are no ejection seats from this thing, just a hatch/doorway as far as understand. If there was an explosion I would think it's unlikely the pilots were able to get out unless the craft literally split in 2 and they were thrown from it and remained conscious.

 

[FelixOrion]

Wait, the plane landed safely but there were chutes deployed and debris reported?

WhiteKnightTwo carries SpaceShipTwo to a high altitude, and then it detaches and launches from there. WhiteKnightTwo is okay.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scaled_Composites_White_Knight_Two
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpaceShipTwo

 

[woolley]

Wait, the plane landed safely but there were chutes deployed and debris reported?

The ship is two ships. The first plane brings up the spaceship and then lets it go and the spaceship boosts it's own rockets to get into orbit. The one that goes into orbit has crashed and the first plane has landed safely.

 

[genericsuperhero]

I forgot this was even a thing and I thought this was a "News from the future" type thread.

Not a good week for private spaceflight

 

[itsgreen]

Pictures:

https://twitter.com/doughyjoey5/status/528256735258361858
https://twitter.com/realtimwilliams/status/528257220291866624

 

[Thaumaturgic Tomato]

Damn. Hope they ejected. And damn, regular space flight set back 50 years, or in other words, after I'm dead. Crap. Nothing extraordinary is going to happen with space travel in my lifetime.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

AP says 1 fatality, 1 major injury reported by California highway patrol

 

[StuBurns]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

 

[LOLDSFAN]

Bear in mind, this is the 2nd Major Space related crash in 3 days.

Yeah weird coincidence. I though they were talking about the NASA one when I first saw this on the news.

 

[itsgreen]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

Why exactly?

 

[Air]

Hope everybody is safe.

 

[TimeEffect]

Sorry, I dont understand. This is a spaceship for tourists that takes you higher than airplanes, or what?

 

[Spongebob]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

Agreed. Space is a waste of time.

 

[Pai Pai Master]

Why exactly?

I think (hope) he means recreational space travel.

 

[Averon]

Been a bad week for private space flight.

 

[itsgreen]

Sorry, I dont understand. This is a spaceship for tourists that takes you higher than airplanes, or what?

Yeah, this thing is being tested/developed at the moment. Its purpose is to enable space tourism. You could buy 100k tickets to travel 'into space'.

I think (hope) he means recreational space travel.

But even that. How is this grounds for not pursuing it. Utter bullshit.

 

[ElectricBlanketFire]

Hope for the best.

I continue to be baffled at how we successfully landed men on the moon and returned them.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

Why would you even say that?

"Hey, this pushing mankind forward thing is dangerous, maybe we should just not do it."

That's not the right answer.

Agreed. Space is a waste of time.

I do hope you're joking.

 

[SliceSabre]

Gosh that sucks, hope the pilots made it somehow.

 

[Rich!]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

300 years ago:

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but crossing the atlantic ocean needs to stop outright.

 

[Fireblend]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

What? No. The worst news to come from this would be increased resistance to interest in space travel.

 

[Spongebob]

I continue to be baffled at how we successfully landed men on the moon and returned them.

Makes you wonder if it really happened doesn't it.

 

[e_i]

Bear in mind, this is the 2nd Major Space related crash in 3 days.

And third plane crash (I'm counting the rocket too).

 

[Alucrid]

Makes you wonder if it really happened doesn't it.

don't do this...

 

[Htown]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Completely ridiculous.

 

[Slightly Live]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

What the fuck?

Accidents didn't stop our ancestors from exploring the oceans. There will be more space related accidents in future, more deaths. We should remember these folks as heroes as we continue in the direction they lead us on.

 

[NateDrake]

One pilot is dead, the other is seriously injured, authorities told the Associated Press.

Damn.

 

[Deadly Cyclone]

Makes you wonder if it really happened doesn't it.

Oh. I see. You're one of those people.

 

[Hrothgar]

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/vi...aceshiptwo-crashes-during-flight-test-n238376

Holy shit, bad week.

 

[UtterlyPerplexed]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Hope for the best for the pilots, but I would be surprised if they made it.

This is terrible news, indeed, but we should never be that dissuaded from pursuing something, otherwise human beings would never have got off the ground in the first place.

 

[Anton Sugar]

300 years ago:

"Ye olde"

Well done.

Makes you wonder if it really happened doesn't it.

 

[xbhaskarx]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

Are you going to bother explaining why space travel needs to stop?

 

[~Devil Trigger~]

I know its soon and all but

I still think its sad that our country could not find a way to properly fund NASA and maned Space fly.

Im still not a believer in the "private" solution to maned Space flight.

 

[bigwinnerx]

You can't cook an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

As long as we have the Branson and Musk and Bezos folks of the world, we need to keep pushing outward.

 

[wenis]

It's a pretty depressing thing to say, but space travel needs to stop outright.

how many marijuana cigarettes did you smoke? we should KEEP trying to go into space.

 

[Winterblink]

Are you going to bother explaining why space travel needs to stop?

Personally I don't even what to fucking know what he has to say. What a stupid way to shit up a thread about developing news of this kind (referring to him, not you).