Space tourism site hit by blast
2007-07-27 09:46
Mojave, California - An explosion killed two workers and critically injured four others at a Mojave Desert airport site used by the pioneering aerospace company that sent the first private manned rocket into space, authorities said.
The blast on Thursday at a Mojave Air and Space Port facility belonging to Scaled Composites LLC released nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, into the air.
Haz-Mat teams were on the scene as a precaution and fire authorities said the scene was safe. All the victims worked for Scaled, the Mojave-based builder of SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket to reach space.
Aerospace designer Burt Rutan, who heads Scaled but was away, rushed back to Mojave. No information about the victims was released because families were being notified.
Rutan said the blast did not involve a rocket firing but happened during a test of the flow of nitrous oxide through an injector in the course of testing components for a new rocket motor for the upcoming SpaceShipTwo.
The nitrous oxide was at room temperature and under pressure, Rutan said.
Space tourism business
Rutan gave little additional information about the test, but said it had been done safely many times during the SpaceShipOne programme and had been done once before for the SpaceShipTwo programme.
"We were doing a test we believe was safe. We don't know why it exploded. We just don't know," he said.
SpaceShipTwo is to be used for the new space tourism business Virgin Galactic belonging to Richard Branson. The company plans to offer $200 000 rides into space for tourists.
- AP