Richard Branson was set to meet his Virgin Galactic space team in California’s Mojave Desert yesterday following the crash of a passenger spaceship being developed by his company that killed one pilot and seriously injured the other.
The entrepreneur has pledged to keep up the drive for space travel, saying on the company’s Web site: “Space is hard — but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together.”
Friday’s crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave, 150km north of Los Angeles, was the second disaster suffered by a private space company in less than a week, dealing a blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry.
Photo: EPA
On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences Corp exploded after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
In the Virgin crash, one pilot’s body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, according to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood.
The survivor was found more than a kilometer from the main wreckage of SpaceShipTwo near the Mojave Air and Space Port, he said.
Television footage of the crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Youngblood said the debris field was spread over more than a kilometer.
Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Grumman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident.
“While not a NASA mission, the pain of this [new] tragedy will be felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploration,” the US space agency, said in a statement.
The crash occurred shortly after the craft separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch.
Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey told a news conference on Friday the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket-fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said the formula “had been proven and tested on the ground” before Friday’s test launch.
The US National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its teams to investigate.
More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about 13.7km and released by Virgin’s White Knight Two carrier jet airplane.
A ride on the ship now goes for US$250,000 and among those who have signed up are celebrities including singer Lady Gaga, and actors Angelina Jolie and Ashton Kutcher.
The Virgin and Antares back-to-back accidents are setbacks for the commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the governments, while also expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)
EYE ON STRAIT: The US spending bill ‘doubles security cooperation funding for Taiwan,’ while also seeking to counter the influence of China US President Joe Biden on Saturday signed into law a US$1.2 trillion spending package that includes US$300 million in foreign military financing to Taiwan, as well as funding for Taipei-Washington cooperative projects. The US Congress early on Saturday overwhelmingly passed the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act 2024 to avoid a partial shutdown and fund the government through September for a fiscal year that began six months ago. Under the package, the Defense Appropriations Act would provide a US$27 billion increase from the previous fiscal year to fund “critical national defense efforts, including countering the PRC [People’s Republic of China],” according to a summary