This Halloween, a new kind of horror was brewing for British spaceflight company Virgin Galactic. It didn’t take the form of the traditional grinning skeleton or gruesome corpse. Instead, it manifested in the form of twisted, charred, and smoking debris strewn across a mile-wide patch of California’s Mojave Desert. It was debris that perhaps was a corpse of sorts—that of a rocket ship.
The ship was called SpaceShipTwo, and achieved liftoff for only 13 seconds before exploding into a fiery ball of light and smoke and plunging back down to Earth.
The spaceship’s co-pilot, Michael Alsbury, died in the crash. The pilot, Peter Siebold, managed to parachute out of the craft and sustained severe injuries, although he ultimately survived.
Virgin Galactic’s founder, Richard Branson, flew to California immediately to be with his team, and expressed condolences for the families of both pilots. “[We all are] deeply saddened by today’s events,” he wrote in a blog post. “All our thoughts are with the families of everyone affected by this tragic event, and we are doing everything we can to support them.”
Mr. Brush, an Algebra II teacher at Ridge, says his heart also goes out to the rocket’s team of engineers. “It’s pretty amazing,” he states, “when you think of the physics, science, and math that goes into this thing, and the way it can all go wrong in a fraction of a second. It’s a pretty big burden to carry, as an engineer or scientist. To know that real human lives depend on your machine.”
SpaceShipTwo had flown three times before, but this was its first time using a new, more powerful fuel that was plastic-based, rather than the old rubber-based one. However, technicians say that the new fuel didn’t cause the crash. As of yet, there is no definite consensus as to what did cause the crash, although there are several theories. Most experts believe that what happened was a combination of mechanical and pilot error that caused the wings to deploy into the “feathering” position too early.
SpaceShipTwo was a test flight for one of Virgin Galactic’s projects—space tourism. For $250,000, customers can take a two-hour trip around the Earth, seeing the planet from afar and experiencing the sensation of weightlessness. Over 700 people have signed up, including celebrities like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and Leonardo DiCaprio. The first commercial spacecraft was initially slated to fly as early as next year, but October’s crash has delayed the program indefinitely. However, most of the 700 customers have reinstated their commitment to fly, with “only a few” asking for their money back, according to Branson.
So what does this calamity mean for Virgin Galactic? CEO George Whitesides claims that the company will learn from their mistakes and keep going. “Space is hard,” he said after the crash, “but worth it. We are going to learn from what went wrong, discover how we can improve safety and performance and then move forwards together.”
The company has already started constructing a replacement craft and plans to restart test flights next year.
Halloween’s crash marked the second such accident that week. On October 28th, Orbital Science’s unmanned rocket Antares—carrying 5,000 pounds of food and other supplies to the International Space Station—exploded just 15 seconds after liftoff.
Virgin Galactic and Orbital Sciences Corporation are two of hundreds of privately owned space companies worldwide, a situation that is in stark contrast from when space travel was sponsored solely by the government. But the private space industry is still young, and many believe that the back-to-back accidents have dealt it a serious blow. Critics claim that these mishaps call into question the safety and reliability of the spacecraft manufactured by these companies. But others argue that any new venture like this is inherently risky.
“Besides,” says Jennifer Huang, ’18, “if we lost faith in all airplanes every time there was a plane crash, everyone would still be riding around in trains. It’s the same for spaceships. Things like this are sad, but they shouldn’t define the company they happen to or the entire industry.”
All this comes at a time when the limelight is already focused on the private space industry, with billionaires like Google’s Larry Page and business mogul Elon Musk venturing into the business. Their companies do everything from delivering satellites and cargo into space to mining asteroids, from manufacturing rocket engines to—of course— space tourism.
With the introduction of commercial space programs like Virgin Galactic’s, space is becoming more and more accessible to the common person. Ideas and concepts that seemed laughable a mere decade ago are now well within the realm of possibility. And as spaceflight companies detail projects like space tourism, or putting humans on Mars, it’s easy to get caught up in visions of the future. But at the same time, it’s important to look back on tragedies like these and remember the cost.