Vox Sentences: Virgin Galactic's deadly test flight

1. The Virgin Galactic crash

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (L) and Sir Richard Branson stand next to a model as Virgin Galactic unveils its new SpaceShipTwo spacecraft at the Mojave Spaceport on December 7, 2009 near Mojave, California. (David McNew/Getty Images)

• A SpaceShipTwo spacecraft owned by Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight in the Mojave Desert today, killing one pilot and injuring the other.

  [NYT / Kenneth Chang]

• Here's what we know and don't know about the situation at the moment.

  [Vox / Joey Stromberg]

• SpaceShipTwo has been in development for nearly a decade; its predecessor, SpaceShipOne, won the Ansari X-Prize, offered to the first team to send a manned vehicle into space twice, in 2004.

  [Space.com / Elizabeth Howell]

• Three crew members were killed in 2007 when a SpaceShipTwo propellant flow test went awry, causing an explosion.

  [Space.com / Leonard David]

• About 700 people are on Virgin Galactic's waiting list, either by getting a free ticket or paying a deposit toward a $250,000 seat (up from $200,000 initially).

  [PC Mag / Angela Moscaritolo]

• A biographer of Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Galactic, argued earlier this year that the spaceship's engine needed a total redesign: "That's the problem with Branson. He's always boasted and got away with saying things which don't happen. … His boasts are unhealthy."

  [The Guardian / Peter Walker and Jon Ronson]

• This was the first test flight in nine months, and the first since the SpaceShipTwo switched from rubber fuel to plastic fuel after it was having problems with its former setup.

  [NBC News / Alan Boyle]

• SpaceShipTwo (and SpaceShipOne) use what's called a hybrid engine, which is fairly uncommon and, Doug Messier argues, dangerous.

  [Parabolic Arc / Doug Messier]

• NASA astronaut Chris Hadfield predicted problems earlier this year: "Eventually they'll crash one. Because it's hard. They're discovering how hard."

  [The Guardian / Emma Brokes]

2. Burkina Faso after the coup

Deposed Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaoré with Secretary of State John Kerry. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

• Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaoré has officially resigned after a successful coup against him.

  [NYT / Hervé Taoko and Alan Cowell]

• Gen. Honoré Nabéré Traoré, the Army Chief of Staff, has taken over as head of state.

  [WSJ / Drew Hinshaw]

• Zephirin Diabre, a key member of the opposition, cheered Compaoré's resignation; it's unclear how he and other opposition figures will deal with the new military regime.

  [The Telegraph / David Blair]

• The fall of Compaoré, a US ally, is "prompting some uneasiness inside the US national security community."

  [ABC News / Lee Ferran]

• Here is a Vox explainer on Burkina Faso: the background that lead up to the coup, how the coup went down, and what to look out for next.

  [Vox / Zack Beauchamp]

3. Japan gets serious

(Andrew Gombert/Pool/Getty Images)

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has put together a very aggressive central bank. (Andrew Gombert-Pool/Getty Images)

• Just as the Federal Reserve is ending its quantitative easing (that is, buynig up billions of dollars worth of bonds to help the economy) program, the Bank of Japan announced that they're expanding theirs.

  [NYT / Jonathan Soble]

• The announcement led to a stock market surge, in Japan, obviously, but also the US.

  [Bloomberg / Callie Bost and Namitha Jagadeesh]

• As in the US and Europe, Japanese legislators are making the bank's job harder by trying to reduce the deficit.

  [NYT / Neil Irwin]

• One study finds that, overall, the economic agenda of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe — or "Abenomics," which included both aggressive monetary policy and fiscal stimulus, though the latter was fleeting — boosted GDP growth by about 3.1 percentage points.

  [Brookings / Joshua Hausman and Johannes Wieland]

• "Americans might want to ask ourselves why our central bank isn't doing the same thing."

  [Vox / Matt Yglesias]

• William Pesek dissents: "the fact remains that the Prime Minister is studiously ignoring the biggest economic engine of all: China."

  [Bloomberg View / William Pesek]

4. Misc.

• ISIS systematically executed 600 male prisoners, the vast majority of them Shi'a.

  [Human Rights Watch]

• Kaci Hickox, the quarantined Maine nurse who had been part of the Ebola effort in West Africa, is finally free of her quarantine, thanks to a court ruling.

  [Vox / German Lopez]

• A California ballot measure making six nonviolent crimes (including drug possession) no longer felonies looks set to pass.

  [Washington Post / Niraj Chokshi]

• That's a good way to fight mass incarceration. Here are three more.

  [CBPP / Michael Mitchell]

• When the New York Times built an election prediction app, it found that people kept clicking for new predictions until they got the one they were hoping for.

  [NYT / Justin Wolfers]

• We really don't know if campaigning against the "war on women" helps or hurts Democrats.

  [Mischiefs of Faction / Seth Masket]

• An outstanding explanation of the fight over teacher tenure, both in California and across the country.

  [Time / Haley Sweetland Edwards]

• China needs more babies — and easing the one-child policy hasn't done much.

  [Bloomberg View / Adam Minter]

• Study: war is the health of the state

  [Marginal Revolution / Tyler Cowen]

• If you could pay $1,000 for unlimited beer for life at your favorite bar, would you?

  [UrbanTurf]

5. Verbatim

• "I'll be very, very honest with you: The South has not always been the friendliest place for African Americans. It's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader."

  [Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), to Chuck Todd and Carrie Dunn / NBC News]

• "There’s an inherent problem with for-profit systems: the desire for profits."

  [Governing / John Buntin]

• "We are a nation of skid marks. Bidets would, hopefully, solve our long, national nightmare."

  [Pacific Standard / Rick Paulas]

• "This is concentrated poverty, the poverty born of segregation and disinvestment, that city government not all that long ago helped to create and is now seeking to undo in the name of creating opportunity where little now exists."

  [Washington Post / Tina Griego]

• "To look for the humanity of anyone at all cannot be bad."

  [Tablet / Paul Berman]

• "We pine for a simpler time. The Reagan Years or the Clinton Years or that weird period at the end of the ’80s when the most important question in the world was whether Rock Music would endure."

  [Washington Post / Jim Tankersley]

Correction: This post originally stated that the X Prize was won in 2014; it was won in 2004. It also stated that Virgin Galactic took $250,000 deposits, when that is the full cost of a seat. We regret the errors.

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