Posted on 10/31/2014 6:23:46 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Participating in the press conference were executives Kevin Mickey, CEO of Scaled Composites, George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic and Stu Witt, chief executive of Mojave Air and Space Port. They emphasized that the nylon-based rocket fuel and engine had been thoroughly tested on the ground and they were confident of its readiness for in-flight testing.
... Two minutes into the powered flight would have permitted considerable time for SpaceShipTwo to gain altitude and speed. The pilots were not wearing pressure suits, only masks providing supplemental oxygen. At 50,000 feet and more, conditions are equivalent to space, and fluids in the human body begin to boil – turn from liquid to gas. The velocity of the surrounding jetstream upon breakup or ejection would have caused loss of their masks and any oxygen possibly carried with them.
Scaled Composites did not state during the press conference at what altitude the accident occurred. Based on the time of the accident – 2 minutes into powered flight – the vehicle could have been anywhere from 40,000 feet (12 km) to as high as 200,000 feet (60 km).
... SpaceShipTwo does not have ejection seats but is equipped with an escape hatch. The fuselage is fully pressurized for the pilots and planned paying customers. It is not yet determined if the test pilots escaped from the hatch or were thrown from the vehicle after its mid-air breakup.
It is standard practice for any test pilot in an experimental vehicle to be wearing a parachute. SpaceShipTwo would be no exception. Furthermore, being aware of the flight conditions and escaping from a vehicle at high altitude, the chutes very likely had automatic mechanisms to deploy, assuming unconsciousness.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Couldn’t have been a pleasant death.
I read that the engine and fuel were new and untested.
The old engine used rubber as a primary ingredient and it emitted a lot of black smoke and soot.
Prediction: the new fuel mix was probably created to be more earth friendly but obviously was unstable or needed more testing. I would bet this happened in part because of environmental BS.
Freeper DukeC posted this, this afternoon. Set it to 1700, and watch as the planes separate two planes appear, then the second one disappears a moment later.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3221846/posts
Ironically, it may have indeed been a pleasant death, if you count unconsciousness. The explosive blast that broke up the ship could easily have caused unconsciousness. And if that wasn't enough, the wind blast and lack of oxygen at that altitude would also create unconsciousness.
Strange that they weren't wearing pressure suits - if they had to use parachutes, the suits would have saved them from serious injury or death. Maybe that's why the survivor is so badly hurt.
Two minutes. They release at 45k feet. Maximum burn is 16 minutes I heard and they peak out at 56 miles up 300k feet.
2 minutes into the burn 100k feet?
I guess this new super fuel could have used a little more testing time.
Here is the link directly to the flight radar, but credit goes to DukeC.
http://www.flightradar24.com/2014-10-31/17:07/12x/N339SS/4b4bf55
A moment or 2 minutes. With those rocket motors you can cover some serious distance in 2 minutes.
Thanks!
The guy parachuting out is the real bizarre part. You can’t breath over 14k feet.
“You can’t breath over 14k feet.”
Yeah you can. The average person will last just fine even at 25,000 feet. A bit dizzy from hypoxia, you’ll live.
That is the design, no pressure suits. I guess they had a lot of confidence in the capsule design integrity.
It’s possible to bail out at high altitude. Most military style parachute rigs have small Oxygen bottles and an altimeter so you free fall until you get around 14k feet even if you are unconscious.
People climb Mt. Everest without supplemental oxygen. Not very many, but it occurs.
Knowing that area, they didn’t get very far. At least according to this radar.
Survival Parachutes have altimeters and O2 bottles that plug into your mask so if you bail the parachute won’t open until you hit 14k feet.
They shoot straight up so they won’t cover distance, just gain altitude.
You're absolutely correct. In my younger days, I often hiked above 14,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Breathing was a little labored, but I made it just fine.
Either way, the parachutes have a delay that goes off at 14k feet. You can’t depend on someone free falling from, in this case, 75k or higher to open their chute. They may be out cold or injured when they hit 25k. The fact the pilot bailed indicates he was probably at a pretty low altitude when he escaped. I don’t even think it’s possible to bail out without pressurization at 100k feet. I may be wrong but it would be pretty rough. This is all quite a mystery to me.
Algore’s and Obama’s fault....I knew it!!!
I'd have to agree with that, death at that altitude would likely be instantaneous.
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