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THE NEW MEXICAN Saturday, November 1, 2014
Ship: Crash ends bad week for spaceflight; rocket blew up Tuesday a ticket price of up to $250,000 a seat. It is unclear what Friday’s disaster will do to those ambitions or to the fledgling industry that has grown up around the desert town of Mojave. For commercial space, this day will be akin to what happened to NASA in 1967 when the Apollo 1 spacecraft had a capsule fire, killing three astronauts, during a launch test. “Space is hard. And today was a tough day,” said a visibly shaken George Whitesides, the chief executive of Virgin Galactic and a former chief of staff at NASA. New Mexico taxpayers footed the bill to build the futuristic hangar and runway in a remote stretch of desert southeast of Truth or Consequences as part of a plan devised by Branson and former Gov. Bill Richardson. Critics have long challenged the state’s investment, questioning whether flights would ever get off the ground. The company offered no explanation for the disaster, which is being investigated by federal aviation officials. This was the fourth powered flight of the spaceship, all at relatively low altitudes, well within the atmosphere. But it was the first powered flight since January. It used a new fuel mix that had been tested on the ground successfully, said Kevin Mickey, president of Scaled Composites, which built the vehicle for Virgin Galactic. The spacecraft was found ripped apart, in large fragments, amid the sagebrush on the desert floor. “From my eyes and my ears, I detected nothing that appeared abnormal,” Stuart Witt, the Mojave Air and Space Port’s chief executive, said of the launch at a news conference. He later added, “If there was a huge explosion that
Wreckage lies near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed Friday in Mojave, Calif. One pilot was killed and another was seriously injured. RINGO H.W. CHIU/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
occurred, I didn’t see it.” A photographer captured images showing the spacecraft firing its rocket engine and then, moments later, disintegrating amid a white cloud of vapor or smoke and leaving a trail of debris in the blue desert sky. This has been a terrible week for commercial space in general: An Antares rocket, topped by a Cygnus capsule loaded with supplies for the International Space Station, exploded Tuesday night seconds after liftoff from a launch pad at Wallops Island, Va. Investigators from NASA and Orbital Sciences, the Dulles, Va., company that owned the rocket and had a contract for multiple cargo mis-
sions to the space station, continue to look into the incident. At the crash of SpaceShipTwo, the pilot’s body was found inside the wreckage. A second pilot ejected and was found at the crash site by emergency teams, who took him to Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, Calif. His condition and identity had not been made public. Virgin Galactic has been hoping to be the pioneer of space tourism, taking customers nearly 70 miles above the Earth’s surface on short, suborbital flights. There is no absolute edge to space, because the atmosphere thins gradually, but it’s generally agreed that such an altitude, where space appears
black, easily qualifies. For many years, the company has been promising that it is getting close to commercial operation, but it has faced a series of delays because of technical issues — not an uncommon problem in spaceflight. SpaceShipTwo was designed by the legendary engineer Burt Rutan, who founded Scaled Composites in Mojave, a rustic town near Edwards Air Force Base. It is a part of the country known for historic aviation feats, among them pilot Chuck Yeager breaking the sound barrier in 1947. A smaller predecessor to the craft, SpaceShipOne, became the first private spacecraft to reach space in 2004. Scaled Composites is no stranger to tragedy, having suffered a hangar explosion in 2007 in Mojave that killed three people and critically injured three others. A person who answered the phone at Rutan’s home said no one could comment. SpaceShipTwo was an eightseat craft, including two seats for the pilots. The vehicle was not designed to launch like a conventional rocket or space shuttle. Instead, it rode to an altitude of about nine miles
underneath a jet-powered carrier plane, the WhiteKnightTwo. That craft then dropped the winged spaceship, which would glide for a few seconds before its rocket engine would fire. The company planned to use that rocket thrust to eventually go all the way to space. The spaceship would then glide back to Earth and land on a runway. “This will inject a note of sobriety into the enthusiasm of those who would like the space-
flight experience,” said John Logsdon, professor emeritus at George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute. “There was a whole juggernaut of ground training and private spaceports that were being set up to support an emerging space tourism industry, with a collective burst of maybe unrealistic expectations. This will certainly throw cold water on that.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A ce qui a Ma d r e E l e menta ry Sc h ool
20th Annual A rt Au c t i o n Saturday • November 1, 2014 • 5 pm S a n t a Fe c o n v e nti on C enter
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Live & Silent Auction • Cash Bar • Cowgirl BBQ • DJ John Edwards This popular fundraiser is now a well-anticipated tradition which includes several of Santa Fe’s best-known artists
Your Chance to Bid on... A week in Costa Rica, A VAcation in New Orleans, Fine Art, Spa Services, Jewelry, STudent ARt, Golf at Las Campanas, and More... Businesses Donors: Abbate Fine Art • Adobe Gallery • Adorn Hair Salon • Alchemy Lights • Alpine Laser Dental • Antique Warehouse • Balance Acupressure • Bee Hive • Bell Tower Editions • Bittersweet • Blue Door Studio • Blue Lotus Integrative Health Care • Bonita Medical Center • Broken Spoke • Cafe Castro • Canyon Rd Contemporary • Canyon Vista Cooking • Casa Navarro • Casa Solana Pool • Casitas de Romero • CG Higgins Confections • Char of Santa Fe • Chevrolet Cadillac of Santa Fe • Chic Hair • CK Violin Studio • Clafoutis • Cool Springz • Coyote Café • Downey Gallery • Dragonfly School • ECCO Espresso & Gelato • Ecotone • El Farol • Feathered Friends of Santa Fe • Fire & Hops • For a Fist Full of Dollars • Galisteo Bistro • Gallerie Corazon • Gallery 901 • Gerald Peters Gallery • Glow Boutique • Grow Y’Own • Il Piatto Italian Farm House • Inn of the Governor’s • Java Joe’s • Joe Romero’s Santa Fe Vacation Rentals • Joe Wade Fine Art • Jurassic Pets • Justin’s Frame Designs • Kakawa Chocolate House • Karen Melfi Collection • Karen Novotny Photography • La Boca • La Casa Sena • La Choza • La Mesa of Santa Fe • La Posada Spa • LewAllen and LewAllen Jewelry • LewAllen Contemporary • Lynda Geman Ceramics • Mark White Fine Art • Mediterrania • Mertail Fitness • Meyer Gallery • Midtown Bistro • Mike’s Garage • Mist Skin Care • Momentum Bilingual PreSchool • Mucho Gusto Sandwich • Nail Time • Nambe • Nathalie Home • Nedra Matteucci Galleries • Northside Vet • Novi Designs • OHORI’s • Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs • Payne Nursery • Plum Tree • Pomegranate Studio • Project Tibet • Red Sage Restaurant • Reliable Tech Heating, Cooling, and Plumbing • Rio Chama • Russian Art Gallery • Salon Del Mar • Santa Fe Capital Grill • Santa Fe Children’s Museum • Santa Fe Clay Co • Santa Fe Community Yoga Ctr • Santa Fe Culinary Academy • Santa Fe Mountain Kids • Santa Fe Quilting • Santa Fe Spa • Santa Fe Stoneworks • Santa Fe Tennis & Swim Club • Savory Spice Shop • Seeds of Change • Shake Foundation • Silver Sun Gallery • Siri Hollander • Strike Gold Bowling • Sweetwater Harvest Kitchen • Takis’ Landscape • Ten Thousand Waves • The Auto Angel • The Club at Las Campanas • The Dungeon • The Gallery at 622 Canyon Rd • The Santa Fe Opera • The Standard Art & Antiques Co. • Therapy Solutions • Tierra Linda Co-Creative Gardening • Tom Ross Gallery • Towa Golf Club at Buffalo Thunder • Toyopolis • Toyotech • Vida Wellness Costa Rica • Waxlander Gallery • Will Wilson Photography • William and Joseph Gallery • William Siegal Gallery • Wolf Creek Ski Area • Zuma Fine Arts Individual Donors: Christi Alsop • Linda Anderson • Ruth Avila • Jodi Balsano • Adrienne Barrett • Rico Adams Betarado • Marla Biberstine • Sarah Bienvenu • Jennifer Blankenship • Isle Bolle • Dorothy Bracey • Catherine Callsy • Dominic Cappello • Lisa Coddington • James P. Cohen • Catherine Colby • Lisa Cooley • Leslie Elliott • Mary Evans • Mike Evans • Abigail Fairbridge • Sean Fairbridge • Schwartz Family • Parick & Barbara Finley • Leigh Ann Garfield • JoAnn Garges • Mark & Shari Garman • Eva Ghazi • Maya Goldberg • Kay Grant • Laura Gyaltsen • Sharada Hall • Susan Hancock • Cynthia Hanna • Melissa Havlin • Jay Heneghan • Mary & David Herr • Kate Herrell • Roberta Howley • Kristina Huckabee • Ken Hughs • Monson Hunt • Rachel Jiron • Tom Johnson • Bryan Johnson-French • Estee Kessler • Chris Keyes • Lucille Kissock • Brian Know • Caleb Kullman • David Kutz • Linda Kyser Smith • Judge Sylvia Lamar • Alex Leeson • Nancy Leeson • Brant Leeper • Kelly Lubeck • Charles S. Marsh • Lyn Martel • Diana Martin • Anne Mauer • Teri Maxwell • Nancy McDevitt • Yuki Murata • Katie Norton • Katherine O’Keefe • John Otter • Linda Paine • Tashi Phuntsag • Stirling Puck • Jennifer Ramo • Stella Register • Juimei Reujie • Rippy Family • Mary Jane Rivera • Lisa Rohleder • Greta Ruiz • JJ & Nina Ruiz • Melissa Russial • Kate Sallah • Omar & Kate Sallah • Marcia Sampson Michael • Melody Saucera • Nancy Scheithauer • Carol Schrader • Carl Schuman • Jeannette Scott • Andrea Senntorick • Samantha Silver • Kie Spezza • Dawn Swanson • Ben Taxy • Jeanne Treadway • Emily Waltz • LeAnn Weimann • Cheryl Whitman • Karen Whitmore • Monika Wikman Ph. D • Joyce Winters • Steve Winters • Bob Witkowski • Katy Yandas • Elena Yung
Featuring Ten Monumental Sculptures by the Leading American Indian Women Sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries.
PUBLIC OPENING Sunday, November 2, 2014. Free Admission Panel Discussion with the Artists, 1:00 and 3:00 pm. Led by Guest Curator Dr. Letitia Chambers Meet the Artists Reception, 4:00–6:00 pm. $35 per person. $30 for MNMF members. tickets: Reservations are required and seating is limited. Purchase tickets in advance at MIAC gift shop or call 505-982-5057.
We humbly thank our of donors—those listed above who contributed before October 27, and those who donated through November 1, 2014.
Thank you to our sponsors: Artisan’s, Barker Realty, Big Jo True Value Hardware, Cowgirl BBQ, DJ John Edwards, Dynamic Events of Denver, Frontier Frames, Hutton Broadcasting, Brian Knox, Life Span Therapy Services, Paper Tiger, Shake Foundation Event proceeds support theatrical performances, artists-in-residence, classroom art projects, learning enrichment, special events, staff professional development, and student recognition programs. It also buys equipment and uniforms for the yearbook club, band, and sports teams. Acequia Madre Elementary School has been honored by Business Week magazine for instructional innovation. The arts focus at Acequia Madre contributes to the city’s often-touted arts environment. Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15, or you can make a donation to the auction and get in for free! For more information, call the school office at (505) 467-4000.
FREE childcare provided by Kate Sallah (505) 469-3515 or via e-mail sallahkate@gmail.com Reservations required for childcare
Free Child Care for Attendees • Tickets: $15 • More Info: 467-4000
Artists include: Retha Walden Gambaro (Muskogee Creek) Tammy Garcia (Santa Clara Pueblo) Estella Loretto (Jemez Pueblo) Kim Seyesnem Obrutz (Hopi) Rose B. Simpson (Santa Clara Pueblo) Roxanne Swentzell (Santa Clara Pueblo) Kathy Whitman-Elk Woman (Mandan/Hidatsa/Arikara)
MUSEUM OF INDIAN ARTS AND CULTURE 710 Camino Lejo (off Old Santa Fe Trail) 505-476-1250 indianartsandculture.org