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One pilot dead, one parachutes to ground in SpaceShipTwo test-flight failure

thar's a noo artikle ha dunben wrote uhn www.giterdonenews.com calt

One pilot dead, one parachutes to ground in SpaceShipTwo test-flight failure

thar's a noo artikle ha dunben wrote uhn www.giterdonenews.com calt

Officials: 1 pilot dead, 1 injured in SpaceShipTwo test-flight failure

New Post has been published on http://www.brianbrown.net/2014/10/31/one-pilot-dead-one-parachutes-to-ground-in-spaceshiptwo-test-flight-failure/

One pilot dead, one parachutes to ground in SpaceShipTwo test-flight failure

(CNN) — The first sign there was a problem with Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo came at about 45,000 feet, just two minutes after the spaceplane separated from the jet-powered aircraft that carried it aloft. It wasn’t something overt with SpaceShipTwo, said Stuart Witt, the chief executive of Mojave Air Space Port in California, where it was launched and monitored. It was what didn’t happen next during the test flight, he said. Witt did not offer details, but appeared to indicate the spaceplane did not follow its previous test-flight patterns. Nothing seemed abnormal during the takeoff or flight prior to the spaceplane’s failure Friday, Witt told reporters. The manned spaceplane broke apart during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and injuring a second pilot. Virgin Galactic conducted “extensive ground testing of all parts of the spaceship,” said Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group. “We’ve always known that the road to space is extremely difficult — and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history,” Branson said in a statement as he was en route to the firm’s Mojave site. The pilot who is hospitalized parachuted to the ground, Virgin Galactic said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those affected by this tragic accident,” it said. The two pilots worked for Scaled Composites, its president, Kevin Mickey, said. He declined to publicly identify the pilots or detail their experience. “Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we are going to get through it,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said. “The future rests in many ways on hard, hard days like this.” For years, Virgin Galactic has planned to sell trips in which SpaceShipTwo transports passengers about 62 miles above Earth — the beginning of outer space — and lets them experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to ground. The incident occurred over the Mojave Desert shortly after SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle designed to carry it aloft, the Federal Aviation Administration said. The jet-powered WhiteKnightTwo returned safely to the Mojave Air Space Port, Witt said. Said Branson: “This was the latest part of an extensive test flight program, and the 55th time SpaceShipTwo had flown. It was WhiteKnightTwo’s 173rd flight and the 35th time SpaceShipTwo had flown freely.” Questions are being raised about a new fuel mixture used after Mickey said it had been ground-tested a number of times, but Friday’s flight was the first time it was used in a test flight. The National Transportation Safety Board is leading the investigation with FAA support, under a voluntary cooperative agreement between the agencies. Deadly day for space tourism — but future ‘rests’ on such days, official says NASA administrator Charles Bolden offered his condolences to the family of the pilot killed in the test flight failure. “While not a NASA mission, the pain of this tragedy will be felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploration,” Bolden said. “Spaceflight is incredibly difficult, and we commend the passion of all in the space community who take on risk to push the boundaries of human achievement.” It’s unclear what the failure of the spaceplane will mean for the program. Virgin Galactic planned to send paying customers on SpaceShipTwo as early as next year. Virgin has sold more than 700 tickets, each costing more than $250,000, for future flights. Several celebrities have already signed up, including Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Leonardo DiCaprio and Stephen Hawking. With composite lightweight materials, “feathered” rudders capable of turning 90 degrees and a hybrid rocket engine, SpaceShipTwo is as safe as modern technology can make it. As designer and aviator Burt Rutan put it in 2008, “This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it’ll correct.” Opinion: The truth about launching spaceships Details of Friday’s test flight plan were not immediately known. But in previous test flights, SpaceShipTwo has been loaded on the jet-powered WhiteKnightTwo, which can take the spaceplane to about 50,000 feet before the spaceplane is released to fly free. At that altitude, SpaceShipTwo would then fire its RocketMotorTwo, a hybrid rocket engine powered by both solid and liquid fuel. SpaceShipTwo would reach supersonic speeds on its way to its intended altitude of about 62 miles above the Earth. At that point, people onboard would get about five minutes of weightlessness before the bonds of Earth retract with 6 G’s of force. The spaceplane would then glide back through the atmosphere to landing. Friday’s is the second incident in a week involving the commercial space industry. On Tuesday, an unmanned Antares rocket exploded just after takeoff off the coast of Virginia. Controllers deliberately destroyed the craft after it became apparent there was a problem, a spokesman for Orbital Sciences Corp. said Thursday. Will rocket’s failure set back the private space industry? CNN’s Mayra Cuevas, Paul Vercammen, Michael Martinez, Mike Ahlers, Rosalina Nieves, Sonya Hamasaki, Shelby Lin Erdman and Todd Leopold contributed to this report.

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New Post has been published on http://www.brianbrown.net/2014/10/31/officials-1-pilot-dead-1-injured-in-spaceshiptwo-test-flight-failure/

Officials: 1 pilot dead, 1 injured in SpaceShipTwo test-flight failure

(CNN) — The first sign there was a problem Friday with Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo came at about 45,000 feet, just two minutes after the spaceplane separated from the jet-powered aircraft that carried it aloft, officials said. It wasn’t something overt with SpaceShipTwo, said Stuart Witt, the chief executive of Mojave Air Space Port, where SpaceShipTwo was launched and monitored. It was what didn’t happen next during the test flight, he said. Witt did not offer details, but appeared to indicate the spaceplane did not follow its previous test-flight patterns. Nothing seemed abnormal during the takeoff or flight prior to the spaceplane’s failure, he said.

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“…If there was a huge explosion, I didn’t see it,” Witt said. This much is known, according to Witt and others: One pilot is dead and another has been hospitalized with serious injuries. The injured pilot was airlifted to Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, California, authorities said. There have been reports that the pilots managed to bail out, using parachutes. But neither Virgin Galactic or its partner conducting the test flight, Scaled Composites, have confirmed the accounts. The two pilots worked for Scaled Composites, according to that company’s president, Kevin Mickey. He declined to publicly identify the pilots or detail their experience. “Space is hard, and today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we are going to get through it,” Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides said. “The future rests in may ways on hard, hard days like this.” Virgin Galactic has planned for years to sell trips in which SpaceShipTwo transports passengers about 62 miles above Earth — the beginning of outer space — and lets them experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to ground. News of the crash of SpaceShipTwo came just after 10 a.m. local time (1 p.m. ET). The incident occurred over the Mojave Desert shortly after SpaceShipTwo separated from WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle designed to carry it aloft, the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement. Television footage from CNN affiliate KABC-TV in Los Angeles showed SpaceShipTwo in pieces in the Mojave Desert. The National Transportation Safety Board is sending a “go team” to investigate the test flight failure, the agency said. Virgin’s chief, Richard Branson, confirmed the loss on Twitter: “Thoughts with all @virgingalactic Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I’m flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team.” It’s unclear what the failure of the spaceplane will mean for the program. Virgin Galactic planned to send paying customers on SpaceShipTwo as early as 2015. With composite lightweight materials, “feathered” rudders capable of turning 90 degrees and a hybrid rocket engine, it is as safe as modern technology can make it. As designer and aviator Burt Rutan put it in 2008, “This vehicle is designed to go into the atmosphere in the worst case straight in or upside down and it’ll correct.” Details of Friday’s test flight plan were not immediately known. But in previous test flights, SpaceShipTwo has been loaded on the jet-powered WhiteKnightTwo, which can take the spaceplane to about 50,000 feet. At that altitude, SpaceShipTwo would then fire its RocketMotorTwo — a hybrid rocket engine powered by both solid and liquid fuel. SpaceShipTwo would reach supersonic speeds on its way to its intended altitude of about 62 miles above the Earth. At that point, people onboard would get about five minutes of weightlessness before the bonds of earth retract with 6 G’s of force. The spaceplane would then glide back through the atmosphere to landing. Friday’s is the second incident in a week involving the commercial space industry. On Tuesday, an unmanned Antares rocket exploded just after takeoff off the coast of Virginia. Controllers deliberately destroyed the craft after it became apparent there was a problem, a spokesman for Orbital Sciences Corporation said Thursday. Will rocket’s failure set back the private space industry? CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, Rosalina Nieves, Sonya Hamasaki, Shelby Lin Erdman and Todd Leopold contributed to this report.

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The World’s Premiere Flight Test Facility

Mojave Air and Space Port emerged as the leading aerospace test center for commercial operations in North America. No longer a sleepy high desert general aviation Mojave Airport destination, Mojave Air and Space Port has amassed more first flights and significant newsworthy flight activity than any other airport in the world over the past ten years.

Currently home to more than 60 companies…

by mike speights, co-founder – The Foodery

September 10, 2012

Earlier this summer, we were working on the creation of a turkey, tomato, mozzarella and pesto panini recipe coupled with gazpacho- a medley of perfect tastes for summer and early fall.  Everything was on point with one critical exception, the bread!  We were searching high and low to find a bread to meet our standards- organic ingredients, the right nutrition and of course, the right taste.  That’s when the clouds parted, we stumbled upon Nashoba Brook Bakery in West Concord, found our bread and met some amazing artisans in the process. 

            How It All Started

The Nashoba Brook Bakery was started nearly 14 years ago to the day by high school best friends Stuart Witt and John Gates.  Stu had worked for an artisan bread company in Vermont, and John had just completed law school.  It was a perfect match.  Stu had developed a passion for the craft of bread making while John had developed a passion for the bread eating experience; and, they both wanted to create a business with purpose devoted to employees and community.  Today, Nashoba Brook is thriving with over 160 wholesale accounts including Whole Foods and a café with a line out the door at lunch every day! 

The Craft

We had a chance to catch-up with Stu to learn about Nashoba Brook’s bread making and culture.  Just like other food artisans, the bread making process starts with the purest ingredients.  As we know, most bread on the store shelves and at cafes are tainted with a laundry list of cheap ingredients, additives, conditioners, preservatives and artificial flavoring- things like high fructose corn syrup, potassium bromate, GMO soybean oil and GMO corn are commonplace.  This is the reason why most non-artisan bread last for two weeks, while real breads last for 1-5 days.  We found the perfect casing for our panini- the Whole Wheat Sourdough made from 100% organic wheat flour, 100% organic germ restored whole wheat flour, filtered water, natural sourdough starter derived from local Concord grapes, and sea salt.  Done.

Stu gave us a tour of where the magic happens and an overview of the 18-24 hour process for each loaf.  Here’s a glimpse:

          Those pure ingredients start right here in this bowl which gets attached to a fork mixer.  The mixing is a very delicate process that takes a watchful eye of the baker.  Every batch is a little different and timing is everything.  The baker’s intuition, not a timer, tells her when the mixing is finished.  Nashoba Brook has a number of bakers who have the experience for this but Stu still loves to stay very involved. 

After the mixer, the slowrise process begins.  Then the batch goes to the bench where it’s quickly divided and hand-formed into loaves by the team.  Afterwards….more slowrise.

Time for the oven: a hand-made, 16 ton, Fringand Olympic oven that cooks at a pace of 320 loaves/ hour.   Stu’s eye lit up as he explained the construction- a 2 week process by one Frenchmen and a team of local contractors with no blueprints (the Frenchman has been assembling them around the world for over 40 years).  The oven has a system of pipes that heat it evenly along with a ceramic oven floor that holds and crisps the loaves to perfection.

Some fresh Harvest and Pepper Jack sourdough loaves on display in the café. 

Some Things Never Change

Over the years, Nashoba Bakery has changed quite a bit but there are some things that never will.  Their slowrise process which enhances flavor, texture and nutrition is one of them.  But it means more than that.  According to the website, “Slowrise has another meaning to us which is less practical and more philosophical.  We like to think of slowrise as a symbolic counter point to the culture of instant gratification.  The old saying that anything worth having is worth waiting for resonates with us.  In the course of busy days that sometimes overwhelm us, we try to remember to breathe deeply and not rush always to the next thing.”

The craft is also timeless.  Stu gave us an example with a recent decision to forgo purchasing a spiral mixer which would have saved time, increasing production.  He rented one for 2 weeks.  The bread just didn’t meet the Nashoba standard so he passed.  He never stops practicing and honing the craft and enjoys teaching his bakers.  Lately, he’s been spending time studying Zappos and their CEO Tony Hsieh, who provide us all with a shining example of a culture-based company.  Like Tony, Stu believes that happy employees result in a better product, a better customer experience and ultimately a better bottom line. 

Thanks again to Stu and Laurie.  We’re excited to be sharing their story and breads with our customers!