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WASHINGTON — Scaled Composites LLC is appealing $28,870 in fines the California Department of Industrial Relations imposed on the Mojave, Calif.-based spaceship builder in connection with a July test-stand explosion that killed three workers.
Seventeen Scaled Composite employees and contractors were present when the explosion occurred three seconds into a cold-flow test of a hybrid rocket motor the company is developing for Virgin Galactic?s SpaceShipTwo suborbital passenger craft.
The six workers who were running the test were not injured in the blast. They were sheltered in a mobile command center protected by an earthen berm.
California safety officials faulted Scaled for failing to adequately train workers about the potential hazards of nitrous oxide.
