[glatt]

Minor setback here, and a tragedy for the company. One of the engines blew up in a test, killed three and seriously injured three more.

Space Tourism Firm Hit by Blast
Three Killed by Explosion During Rocket Engine Test

Associated Press
Saturday, July 28, 2007; A07

MOJAVE, Calif. -- A fatal explosion at a Mojave Desert airport during testing for a new space tourism vehicle has shaken a small community that prides itself as the home town of the first private space launch.

The blast Thursday at a remote test facility belonging to Scaled Composites killed three workers and critically injured three others.

The company, headed by maverick aerospace designer Burt Rutan, made history in 2004 when its SpaceShipOne became the first private manned rocket to reach space. Since that milestone, Rutan has partnered with British billionaire Richard Branson to build a fleet of commercial vehicles dubbed SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.

The accident occurred during a test of the flow of nitrous oxide through an injector in the course of testing propellant system components for a new rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo. The chemical was at room temperature and under pressure, Rutan said.

Stuart Witt, general manager of the Mojave Air and Space Port, was in his office when the explosion happened. He said the airport is home to several commercial space startups and is constantly buzzing with rocket and engine testing.

"What we do is inherently risky," Witt said. "These are not the days we look forward to, but we deal with it."

The airport is the country's first inland spaceport certified by the Federal Aviation Administration.

A Kern County Medical Center official said two people died at the scene and one later died at the hospital after surgery. The three who were injured suffered numerous shrapnel wounds. Two were in critical condition, and one was in serious condition early Friday, the official said.

Rutan, who arrived at Mojave after the accident, gave little information about the test. But he said it had been done safely many times during the SpaceShipOne program and had been done once before for the SpaceShipTwo program.

Rutan has been developing SpaceShipTwo in a hangar closed to the public. He has not released a schedule for completion of the design or testing, or for the first launch.

Rutan said the accident would not change that.

Branson has invested at least $200 million for a fleet of Rutan's spaceships to send tourists 62 miles above Earth for $200,000 to experience the view from space and five minutes of weightlessness.