Friday, July 27, 2007

Dangers, but also Opportunities

I'd just like to express our team's best wishes to the families of those killed and hurt in the accident at Scaled Composites' test facility earlier this week. Scaled has been a huge inspiration to us and to many others around the world. It would be no exaggeration to say that a lot of our team members idolize the people at Scaled, including those who were caught in the blast.

While there are not many details available at this time, it is known that the accident occured during a test of the propulsion system. This was a sobering event for us, as it reinforced the fact that what we are doing can be dangerous and requires the utmost care.

We are currently in the building permit phase of our propulsion test site development. A lot of effort is being put into eliminating the risks that can be eliminated, in into mitigating the risks that cannot be eliminated. Oversight on this process is being provided by university professors, lab health & safety officials, building officials, and fire prevention officials.

There will always be risk, and we will always have to be careful.