Burt Rutan, Designer Of SpaceShipOne, Steps Down as Scaled President
AP
Burt Rutan, inventor of the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space, stepped down as president of Scaled Composites LLC, the company announced Wednesday.
Rutan gave up his day-to-day responsibilities at Scaled, which he founded in 1982. Scaled Vice President Douglas B. Shane was promoted to president, while Rutan will remain at the company as chief technology officer and chairman emeritus….
Rutan has been recovering from open-heart surgery in February to fix a disorder known as constrictive pericarditis, in which the sac covering the heart is inflamed.
Dale Hawkins of The Tehachapi News has the latest goings-on at the Mojave Air & Space Port, America’s only licensed civil-use spaceport. Scaled Composites is busy at work on SpaceShipTwo, XCOR is building its Lynx spaceplane, Rocket Propulsion Engineering Corporation is testing - of all things - rockets, and the National Test Pilot School is training new aviators.
Buoyed by increased defense sales, Raytheon reported first-quarter profits of $400 million, or 93 cents per share. The world’s fifth largest defense contractor’s 15-percent growth exceeded Wall Street expectations, and company officials re-iterated earlier guidance double-digit profit growth this year.
Associated Press Story
Raytheon Press Release
Northrop Grumman reported that first-quarter earnings fell 32 percent after “the company was forced to take a charge due to rising costs and delays with an amphibious assault ship program it is building for the U.S. Navy,” the Associated Press reported.
Northrop Grumman does extensive aerospace work. Last year, it purchase Scaled Composites, the Mojave, Calif.-based company that is building the SpaceShipTwo suborbital tourism vehicle.
Popular Mechanics has some fascinating pictures of Scaled Composite’s SpaceShipTwo vehicle under construction at the company’s facility in Mojave, Calif. Test flights are to occur later this year, with the first tourism flights for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic to follow in 12 to 18 months.
Emergency workers from Hall Ambulance are being honored for their response to the fatal explosion last summer at the Scaled Composites’ facility in Mojave, the Bakersfield Californian reports.
The rescue personnel responded to the scene soon after the accident, not knowing whether another explosion was imminent. Two Scaled employees were dead and four others injured, one of whom later died after being airlifted to a local hospital. “One patient was covered with little black carbon fibers sticking out of his body,” the paper reports.
The personnel being honored by the California Ambulance Association’s Stars of Life program in Sacramento this week include:
Chris Beucher, flight medic
Samuel Swanson, paramedic
Heather Taylor, paramedic
Sean Eddy, paramedic field supervisor
Brent Wible, paramedic
Timothy Reynolds, paramedic
Jeanette Green, flight nurse
Michael Knutson, EMT
Beucher said he is honored to receive the recognition. “TV portrays it as six months later you meet the victim in his backyard and have a barbecue,” he told the paper. “More often than not we take heat from people.”
The State of California issued five citations against Scaled Composites and issued fines of more than $25,000. The company has appealed the citations and fines.
Virgin’s Galactic has a 5-5 plan for its growth - order five additional spacecraft from Scaled Composites and turn a profit within five years beginning suborbital tourism launches in 2010.
“In the short term, we have firm orders for five spaceships and options for seven … We believe there is a very strong market,” said Virgin Galactic Director Alex Tai during an appearance at the Singapore Airshow.
Read the full Reuters story here. Public Radio also has a short piece about Virgin Galactic, which you can listen to here.
Over at Hobby Space, Clark S. Lindsey reviews progress during the last year in commercial space activity and lays out what he believes is a believable timeline for the next dozen years. It’s a good review of current activities and challenges as well as future plans, so it’s worth a look.
Scaled Composites could still face a criminal or civil prosecution over the fatal explosion at its Mojave, Calif. facility that killed three workers and injured three others, according to a Flight Global story.
California safety officials levied citations and fines totally $28,000. The company has appealed the decision, a process which Flight Global reports could take up to a year. The appeal process would not affect any civil or criminal prosecutions that authorities might decide to launch.
Audley Travel boss Craig Burkinshaw has booked a suborbital flight aboard a Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo vehicle. The head of the English travel company forked over about $200,000 to be among the first to fly aboard Sir Richard Branson’s spaceliner.
There is a brief account at Travel Weekly and a more detailed Oxford Mail story. The Star also has a piece in which it quotes Craig’s proud mum Mary.
You can also follow his adventures at his new website.
Scaled Composites is appealing $28,000 in fines levied by California safety officials relating to a July explosion last year that killed three employees and injured three others.
The Bakersfield Californian has details, as does Space.com here. Neither story indicates why the company is appealing the fines, which were levied for citations alleging the company failed to adequately train workers and to maintain a safe working environment. The company has not commented publicly.
CalOSHA’s accident report indicates the employees were watching a cold-flow test from behind a chain link fence when the explosion occurred. Aviation Week reports this preliminary report points to an oxidizer tank as the cause of the explosion. The company is developing the suborbital tourist vehicle SpaceShipTwo for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic.