02 November 2014

Spaceship death

Branson is pretty Howard Roarke.

NTSB spokesman is excellent.  Christoper A Hart.

"Do they have black boxes"  it was a frickin' test flight, Mr. Reporter.

Hybrid rockets are fun, but
1. not hypergolic
2. don't sub your fuel without hundreds of tests... nylon vs. rubber

100 km is a high bar.  Even 50 mi if you're now only getting 25 mi.

One could design a better ignition system, even if hypergolic chem is a no-go.

Not clear why a motor explosion should have killed someone... you can design against this... one pilot survived... at least the dead was probably killed really quickly...