What happens if the weather catches us a off guard? That happened to my team and I in December of 2009 in the Mojave Desert, during Virgin Galactic’s christening event for SpaceShipTwo. The event began in a clear tent with a press conference and speeches. The guests were then invited out into the Mojave evening to watch SpaceShipTwo rolling down 1,800 feet of taxiway. Guests then went to the tent along with two inflatable domes measuring 80 feet in diameter to party and celebrate. SpaceShipTwo made it down the taxiway and was christened, but the winds got stronger and stronger. When the winds hit a [previously agreed-upon] trigger level, the buses were called back and the 800 guests were politely but firmly and rapidly moved onto the waiting vehicles and sent back to Los Angeles. As the last buses left the site, the winds still didn’t let up, and the call was made to completely clear the site. I still vividly remember sitting with my colleagues Austin and Dennis safely at the perimeter of the site as the winds gusted to 105 mph and lifted the massive tent and folded it like an umbrella on a windy day. A chilling sight, for sure, but made less so by knowing the guests and crew were safe.
—John Featherstone, from “Wecome To My Nightmare,” PLSN, March 2015
