Free Republic

Day-to-day operations resumed at Mojave Air and Space Port on Friday as state officials arrived to begin their investigation of the explosion that killed three Scaled Composites employees and seriously injured three others. Eric Blackwell, 38, of Randsburg; Charles May, 45, of Mojave; and Todd Ivens, 33, of Tehachapi were killed Thursday during what was described as routine cold-testing of a nitrous oxide propellent system for the company's latest spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo. The names of those hospitalized were not released. "We are doing our best to take care of the families of the deceased as well as the injured and their...

After a 3½ hour drive from La Quinta, talking to his employees by iPhone and checking Internet news reports, aircraft designer Burt Rutan faced reporters and cameras less than a mile from where a test site explosion killed two of his workers and critically injured four more. "We were doing a test we believed was completely safe," Rutan said, visibly emotional. "We don't know why it exploded." Rutan told the reporters he hadn't yet had a chance to inspect the explosion site and was heading to Bakersfield to be with the four injured workers and their families at Kern Medical...