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Virgin Galactic quiet after explosion

By Associated Press

Monday, September 3, 2007

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As a female voice coos, "Welcome to space," six passengers in skintight
spacesuits unbuckle their seat belts and somersault in zero gravity,
occasionally peeking back at Earth through the private spaceship's large
portholes.

Virgin Galactic showed off this animated video promoting the weightless joys
of commercial space travel at a trade show for experimental aircraft last month.
But the excitement was overshadowed three days later when a deadly flash
explosion rocked a Mojave Desert facility where top-secret tests were under way
for Virgin's yet-unbuilt spaceship.

The accident at the remote site run by famed aerospace designer Burt Rutan
rattled the fledgling space tourism industry, which has enjoyed a honeymoon
period since 2004.

In 2004, Rutan launched SpaceShipOne, the first private manned rocket into
space. And in December 2005, Virgin and the state of New Mexico announced an
agreement that would bring a spaceport to the southeastern desert. New Mexico's
spaceport is scheduled to be opened in 2009 or 2010.

The recent explosion has offered insight into how two pioneering companies
that forged an unlikely partnership two years ago to fly civilians to space
reacted to the tragedy. In a reversal of roles, Richard Branson's
publicity-seeking Virgin Galactic kept a low profile while its usually silent
partner, Rutan's Scaled Composites LLC, took to the Internet to mourn its
workers.

Some space experts believe Virgin Galactic is following the right strategy
because the accident was of an industrial nature and not directly related to
spaceflight. But eventually customers and the public will demand answers, they
say.

"It's natural for a company to not be out there talking immediately
afterward. I don't think that would be good PR," said Kathleen Allen of the
University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business, who follows the
commercial space industry.

Virgin Galactic did privately contact its prized customers known as founders,
who have paid the full $200,000 to be among the first to experience four minutes
of weightlessness.

Stephen Attenborough, Virgin Galactic's astronaut liaison, reassured the
founders in an e-mail that the accident's impact on the first commercial
spaceflights - expected in late 2009 or 2010 - will be "minimal" and that it was
"business as usual."

In a telephone interview, Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn said it is
not the company's place to comment because the blast occurred in Rutan's
backyard. He added that four new customers have signed up since the mishap and
none of the astronauts-in-waiting have asked for a refund.

"It hasn't affected Virgin Galactic as a business at all," Whitehorn said.
"It hasn't put a stop to anything."

The Mojave accident invoked memories of NASA's Apollo 1 tragedy 40 years ago
in which three astronauts were killed in a flash fire during a routine launch
pad test. The accident forced NASA to temporarily halt its space race with the
Soviet Union and make design changes that led to the successful moon
landings.

In Scaled's case, three technicians died and three others were critically
injured while performing a routine cold-flow test of nitrous oxide that did not
involve a rocket firing. The company, which has done the test numerous times
before without a problem, uses the chemical as an oxidizer in its spaceship's
hybrid rocket motor.

California occupational safety regulators are investigating the July 26
explosion and have six months to complete a report.

The first fatalities of the new space race stunned the commercial space
community, which until now has spoken about risks in abstract terms.

Exactly how the accident will affect other companies building their own
spaceships is unclear since most are working on different propulsion
technologies. However, the Personal Spaceflight Federation, made up of more than
a dozen private space companies, pledged to plow ahead despite the tragedy.

Before the accident, hardly anything was known about Scaled's progress on its
suborbital spaceship program. Afterward, Rutan admitted for the first time the
company was testing a propellant system for SpaceShipTwo, the successor to
SpaceShipOne. Many details about the program are still unknown including how far
along Scaled is.

Rutan also opened up a bit about his relationship with Virgin, calling it
"clumsy" as he explained Scaled's silence.

"This whole program for Richard Branson's company is a program that's clumsy
for us, because it's announced but not unveiled," Rutan said on July 26. "So we
have for a year and a half here been not answering any questions at all about
the program."

Rutan did not respond to e-mails seeking additional comment.

Scaled has since shed some of its stoic image. Its technical Web site was
transformed into a virtual shrine for the three rocket workers killed in the
line of duty. It set up a memorial fund, posted poignant online remembrances and
gave updates on funeral arrangements and conditions of the injured, who are
expected to survive.

Scaled also sought outside experts to determine what went wrong and vowed to
share lessons learned with the industry to prevent another accident.

"Burt is taking it hard because it's the first time he's lost people. There
is a feeling of shock that some of his friends died," said space business
consultant Thomas Matula.

Virgin Galactic reacted to the accident by posting a three-line condolence
message on its Web site under the heading "Mojave Incident." Its unusual public
silence caused some in the British press to speculate about its future and
prompted Whitehorn to write a rebuttal in London's Evening Standard
newspaper.

Virgin Galactic's relative silence is a far cry from its publicity blitz at
the Experimental Aircraft Association trade show in Oshkosh, Wis.

Whitehorn talked about the ease of a Virgin Galactic spaceflight. "You don't
have to learn to speak Russian or train for six months in order to go on
SpaceShipTwo," he said.

Alex Tai, Virgin Galactic vice president of operations, aired a 5-minute
video of a "five-star" spaceflight experience and answered questions about
safety.

Tai gushed about SpaceShipTwo's hybrid rocket motor: "We know it's going to
be the safest way to go into space. There's no moving parts in it, which means
it's pretty much impossible for that thing to fail."

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