Carry on, Spacecraft Fans Urge More Work Seen As Tribute to Researchers Killed in Test

By JIM SKEEN

MOJAVE — Expressions of sympathy and vows to go on with the work to open space travel to tourists continued to pour in Monday in the wake of last week’s blast at the Mojave Airport that killed three men and seriously injured three others.

At Scaled Composites, a fund has been created to support the families of the victims of Thursday’s blast. Contributions can be made to the Scaled Family Support Fund, in care of Scaled Composites, 1624 Flight Line, Mojave, CA 93501. The account number is 04157-66832 and the wire transfer ABA routing number is 1220- 0066-1.

Checks should be made payable to the account number or to the name of the fund.

The company posted a statement on its Web site: "We’re trying to do what we can to support the families during this tragic time. This is an incredibly hard time for all of us. We continue to ask you to keep those people and families who were hurt or have died in your thoughts and prayers."

Killed by the blast were Eric Dean Blackwell, 38, of Randsburg; Charles "Glenn" May, 45, of Mojave; and Todd Ivens, 33, of Tehachapi.

Three other Scaled Composite employees were injured in the blast and remained hospitalized. The company identified them as Keith Fritsinger, Gene Gisin and Jason Kramb.

The deaths and injuries occurred during a cold-flow test of the oxidizer system being developed for SpaceShipTwo, a spacecraft being built to provide suborbital flights for tourists. Virgin Galactic, a company founded by billionaire Richard Branson, plans to begin flying the spacecraft in 2009.

Space advocates continue to voice their sympathies for the victims and said the best way to honor them would be to press on with their work.

"An honest investigation must be conducted to learn what went wrong and to fix the cause, so that it does not happen again," the leaders of the National Space Society said in a joint statement on the incident. "But … our duty is to carry on the work of those heroes, to redouble our efforts to scale the peaks that they were climbing. That is what we learned from Apollo 1. That is what they would want."

A separate statement was issued by Greg Allison, a leader of the NSS chapter at Huntsville, Ala., where Glenn May had many friends.

"The business is very risky, but also very worthy," Allison said. "I know Glenn would want us to press on. He died doing what he loved the most."

A similar sentiment was echoed by the Personal Spaceflight Federation, a private space-flight advocacy group whose members include Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic and another Mojave Airport company, XCOR.

"We will apply the lessons of the investigation now under way and work to prevent this from happening again," the federation’s statement says. "We will persevere. We believe that we can best honor those pioneers who were involved by carrying on their work."

Leaders of Space Frontier Society, another advocacy group, also issued a statement of sympathy.

"Burt Rutan and his team include some of America’s best aerospace test engineers. Whatever the cause of this tragic event was, they will get to the bottom of it, fix the problem and then make their spaceship fly," said James Muncy, co-founder of the foundation and a space policy consultant in Washington, D.C. "It will be the best possible way to honor their sacrifice."

An investigation is under way by the state division of Occupational Safety and Health. State investigators arrived at the site Friday and sealed it off to conduct their work.

They have up to six months to complete the investigation.

james.skeen@dailynews

(661) 267-5743

(c) 2007 Daily News; Los Angeles, Calif.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.