ROCKET PROPELLANT EXPLODES, KILLS 2, AT MOJAVE AIRPORT SITE.

Byline: Daily News

MOJAVE -- Two men were killed and four people were injured Thursday when rocket propellant exploded at a Mojave Airport site being used by Scaled Composites, a company founded by aircraft designer Burt Rutan.

A container of nitrous oxide exploded about 2:20 p.m. at a rocket testing facility on the northeast corner of the airport property.

The site was being used by Scaled Composites employees.

"What we do know is that there was some sort of operation going on at the site by employees of Scaled Composites and there was a catastrophic event," said Fire Inspector Tony Diffenbaugh of the Kern County Fire Department.

Four injured workers were taken by three helicopters to Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield.

The injured had suffered trauma and burns and possible chemical exposure, Diffenbaugh said.

The resulting cloud could be seen from five to six miles away, officials said.

"It was a dangerous situation. Gas was venting off while rescue personnel were doing their job," California Highway Officer Steve Hunsaker said.

The Mojave CHP office is adjacent to the airport and Hunsaker said staff heard the explosion.

The cause of the explosion was not known, Hunsaker said.

Nitrous oxide had been the oxidizer used for the engine of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne, the first privately funded and privately developed manned spacecraft.

SpaceShipOne, financed by billionaire Paul G. Allen, made three sub-orbital flights in 2004 -- two of them within a two-week period.

That achievement earned the SpaceShipOne team the $10 million Ansari X Prize.

Scaled Composites is building SpaceShipTwo for billionaire Richard Branson.

The spaceship, envisioned as the first of a fleet of five, will be used to take tourists on suborbital space flights.