From a statement from members of the Personal Spaceflight Federation:

We will persevere — we believe that we can best honor those pioneers who were involved by carrying on their work.

Hudson, Witt, Anderson, Carmack, French, Gump, Benson, Rutan, Tai, Bigelow, Sirangelo, Greason, Dula, O'Donnell, Diamandis, and Musk

There's an on-line wake going on over at MSNBC.

In addition to whatever private funeral arrangements their families will want, it would nice to see these guys remembered at a general memorial service, perhaps at the next major space conference or event, that many of us in the industry could attend.

Hopefully, with the Navy Hymn including the Heinlein verse for spacers. We need to get good at singing it.

It strikes me the X-Prize Cup in New Mexico would be the proper setting.

That would be a fitting place. Perhaps we could even get a rocketplane fly-over. I wonder if XCOR could bring out theirs one last time?

The Starship that flew chase for SpaceshipOne or Scaled's White Knight might be more appropriate since they would have a personal connection to them via SpaceshipOne and SpaceshipTwo. And of course both were built by Scaled Composites.

I think I will email the folks I know running the X-prize Cup on it. If they are not able to fit it into the aeroshow's schedule they maybe could still do it at the International Space Hall of Fame. Perhaps the Hall of Fame could even add a Commemorative plaque to their Exhibit on the X-PRize/X-Cup History.

It would be appropriate to have the Starship. Even nicer to have enough craft in the air to do a "missing man" formation. The rocket, soaring upward, would be the right way to do that.

Jim,

That would be impressive. But rather then teh Xcor craft a better bet would be the prototype rocket racer. It appears it wil be ready for a demo flight at the X-Cup event.

http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?ContentBlockID=5c019310-ea7b-49c2-b2b1-2230fc7cd765

[[[The Rocket Racing League is prepared to demo an X-1 racer at this year's X-Prize Cup; those following the League's progress will be able to see the racer in action for the first time.]]]

I am sorry, but I can't get on board with treating the gentlemen at Scaled Composites on the same level as, say, Grissom, White and Chaffee, or the countless government test pilots who have died. While my sympathies certainly go out to the families and friends of those killed, they were after all working for a for-profit company with the aim not of advancing spaceflight for the nation or for mankind, but of making money. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but when you are getting (or expecting to get) the full market value of your work in compensation, you can no longer be called a hero.

My grandfather was killed in a coal mining accident many years ago. It was tragic and a terrible blow to our family, but I would never say "He died a hero, providing coal to Navy ships for the nation's defense." He was a private citizen taking known risks, working for market wages paid by a private company.

I'll gladly send a check to a memorial fund for the SC guys, but I just can't accept that they were heroes to anyone except their families.

The EZ-Rocket is retired and will not fly again.
Mojave will be considering an appropriate memorial for all who fall along the way.

Actually there are many memorials around the country to miners who have died in accidents, and its normal to have some type of service honoring them by their local communities. The X-Prize cup is the gathering of the space tourist community and so its appropriate they are remembered in a proper way by their community. Doing so would also serve to be part of the healing process for space tourism.

Thomas, I agree 100% with any memorials of the type you describe. Also, I thought the statement put out by the Personal Spaceflight Federation was on target. What I balk at is the Space Frontier Foundation using the phrase "space heroes" and explicitly equating the SC guys with dead pilots. The risks of test flying are known and expected, yet were taken anyway, which is the essence of the so-called Right Stuff. The risks of working on an engine test rig are generally considered small, on a par with the chemical industry. I dare say the deceased themselves would hesitate at being equated with the likes of Grissom.

There's a whiff of NewSpace boosterism about what the Space Frontier Foundation said. This is the absolute least appropriate time for that sort of thing. They should stand down the public relations machinery and let the families bury their dead.

> they were after all working for a for-profit company with the aim not of advancing spaceflight for the nation or for mankind, but of making money.

The two goals aren't mutually exclusive.

"they were after all working for a for-profit company with the aim not of advancing spaceflight for the nation or for mankind, but of making money."

The two goals aren't mutually exclusive.

Sadly, to many blinded by insane ideologies, they are...

The risks of working on an engine test rig are generally considered small, on a par with the chemical industry. I dare say the deceased themselves would hesitate at being equated with the likes of Grissom.

Sometimes people die when the risks are modest or small. They should not be lionized for their bravery, but for their sacrifice. That they did not expect their fate is cause for more gratitude for their sacrifice.

About three years ago, a guy got killed working on a propellant mixer up at the United Technologies solid rocket plant in San Jose. That accident actually contributed to the plant shutting down permanently.

In 2005, a guy died in a lab explosion at the Thiokol plant.

Obviously, I could go on and on.

Has the Space Frontier Foundation published tributes to these workers? I do not believe so. I do not believe those deaths ever appeared on the Space Frontier Foundation's radar. Forgive me if I consider the Space Frontier Foundation's remarks about the SC guys to be over-the-top, inappropriate, and worst of all, self-serving.

Sometimes I feel that we won the race to the moon, but lost the war against communism.

Yeah, you got me. I wrote that skeptical post about NewSpace and then ran off to chair the meeting of my local Red Brigade cell. We're planning to denounce the manufacturer of "Bratz" and we had to stay up all night writing denunciations. Life is always exciting when you're blinded by insane ideologies.

I don't want to say any more, because (a) I really am sorry that people were killed and (b) I generally respect the enthusiasm of the NewSpace people, even if it occasionally devolves into cheerleading.