Scaled Composites Explosion and the future of spaceflight

While Scaled Composites may not ring a bell, its most famous product SpaceShipOne is likely to.

A piece of very sad news today: there has been a large explosion in the Mojave desert at the Scaled Composites lab. Two people have been killed and more injured. More news can be found here, here and here.

Scaled Composites really does seem to be not only cutting edge in terms of its R&D but a real force for pushing our dreams of making space travel a viable option for more than a select few.

While his style grates with me a little, I do think that what Burt Rutan is trying to do is inspirational. There's a lot of fascinating information in this TED talk's video about why the space race has stalled and what can be done to restart it.

Fingers crossed for those injured in the blast.