It didn’t make a big splash last week, but Northrup Grumman’s offered to buy the majority of SpaceShipOne developer Scaled Composites. The defense contractor already owns 40% of Burt Rutan’s experimental aviation and spaceship builder, and, pending regulatory approval, will own the whole thing. Both halves of the deal have said it won’t affect development of SpaceShipTwo, the follow-on to the first commercial manned space vehicle which will start carrying passengers for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic in 2009.
What made the story news was an explosion yesterday at the Mojave (California) Airport, where Scaled Composites builds its craft. The explosion, as reported by local station KGET, took place during a test that had been run before, and was assumed to be safe. Three Scaled Composites employees died, and three more were seriously injured.
Scaled Composites issued the following statement: “Scaled Composites, LLC is deeply saddened to report the loss of three of our colleagues. Eric Blackwell, 38, Glen May, 45, and Todd Ivens, 33, were killed by an explosion that occurred during a routine cold-flow test of the oxidizer system we’re developing for SpaceShipTwo. Three other Scaled employees were seriously injured and are hospitalized.
“We are doing our best to take care of the families of the deceased as well as the injured and their families, and we hope you will join us in keeping them in your thoughts and prayers.
“As you may imagine, the Scaled family is devastated by this event. As we grieve together, we are also beginning to gather up all of the information to determine what caused this accident. We are committed to learn all we can from this tragedy and move ahead.”