Peter Siebold (born 1971) is a member of the
Scaled Composites
Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to deve ...
astronaut team. He is their Director of Flight Operations,
and was one of the test pilots for
SpaceShipOne
SpaceShipOne is an experimental air-launched rocket-powered aircraft with sub-orbital spaceflight capability at speeds of up to 3,000 ft/s (900 m/s, 3240 km/h), using a hybrid rocket motor. The design features a unique " feathering ...
and
SpaceShipTwo
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShipTwo is ...
, the experimental
spaceplane
A spaceplane is a vehicle that can fly and glide like an aircraft in Earth's atmosphere and maneuver like a spacecraft in outer space. To do so, spaceplanes must incorporate features of both aircraft and spacecraft. Orbital spaceplanes te ...
s developed by the company. On April 8, 2004, Siebold piloted the second powered test flight of SpaceShipOne,
flight 13P, which reached a top speed of Mach 1.6 and an altitude of . On October 31, 2014, Siebold and
Michael Alsbury
Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975 – October 31, 2014) was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. He died on October 31, 2014, during test flight PF04 of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS ''Enterprise''.
Personal life
Alsbury ha ...
were piloting the SpaceShipTwo
VSS ''Enterprise'' on
flight PF04, when the craft came apart in mid-air and then crashed, killing Alsbury and injuring Siebold.
Career
Peter Siebold, a 1990 graduate of
Davis Senior High School in
Davis, California
Davis is the most populous city in Yolo County, California. Located in the Sacramento Valley region of Northern California, the city had a population of 66,850 in 2020, not including the on-campus population of the University of California, Davi ...
, obtained his pilot's license at age 16. He has been a design engineer at Scaled Composites since 1996. Siebold holds a degree in
aerospace engineering from
California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, from 2001.
Siebold was responsible for the simulator, navigation system, and
ground control system for the SpaceShipOne project at Scaled. Although he was one of four qualified pilots for SpaceShipOne, Siebold did not pilot the craft during the flights later in 2004 to meet the requirements of the
Ansari X Prize. Although Siebold flew SpaceShipOne to an altitude of , he did not cross the 100 km
Kármán line—the international standard for reaching space.
For his contribution to the SpaceShipOne project, Siebold, along with
Mike Melvill
Michael Winston Melvill (born November 30, 1940 in Johannesburg, South Africa) is a world-record-breaking pilot and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites. Melvill piloted SpaceShip ...
and
Brian Binnie
William Brian Binnie (April 26, 1953 – September 15, 2022) was a United States Navy officer and one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne, the experimental spaceplane developed by Scaled Composites and flown from 2003 to 2004.
Early life
...
, received the 2004
Iven C. Kincheloe Award presented by the
Society of Experimental Test Pilots
The Society of Experimental Test Pilots is an international organization that seeks to promote air safety and contributes to aeronautical advancement by promoting sound aeronautical design and development; interchanging ideas, thoughts and suggest ...
.
Siebold became the Director of Flight Operations at Scaled.
He was the pilot who flew the
White Knight Two
The Scaled Composites Model 348 White Knight Two (WK2) is a quadjet cargo aircraft that is used to lift the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft to release altitude. It was developed by Scaled Composites from 2007 to 2010 as the first stage of Tier 1b, a tw ...
on its maiden flight on December 21, 2008. He won the Iven C. Kincheloe Award a second time in 2009, this time individually, for his work on the first WhiteKnightTwo,
VMS ''Eve'', as chief test pilot.
SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise crash
![SpaceShip_2_VSS_Enterprise](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/SpaceShip_2_VSS_Enterprise.jpg)
On October 31, 2014, Siebold was one of the two pilots flying the
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The compan ...
SpaceShipTwo
The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic.
SpaceShipTwo is ...
,
VSS ''Enterprise'', along with Michael Alsbury, on a test flight, which suffered an anomaly, resulting in the death of Alsbury and loss of ''Enterprise''. VSS ''Enterprise'' crashed in the California
Mojave Desert
The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...
. Thrown clear of the ''Enterprise'' when it broke up in mid-air, Siebold survived a descent from about at Mach 1 speed with just a flightsuit. His parachute deployed automatically at about 20,000 feet, and, after landing, he was taken to the hospital for treatment.
He suffered from eyesight degradation and eye pains. He was unable to keep his eyes open and he did not open his right eye until emergency personnel arrived.
Siebold's flight suit was saturated with blood from bleeding in his right arm. He did not feel any lower body injuries. As Siebold removed his parachute harness a “clunking noise” was felt in his chest and Siebold became concerned about a potential spinal fracture. Upon arrival at the ER his flight suit was cut away.
Siebold experienced a non-compound four-part fracture of his right
humerus. The ball of his ankle was also dislocated and fractured. He had a non-displaced fracture of his right
clavicle
The clavicle, or collarbone, is a slender, S-shaped long bone approximately 6 inches (15 cm) long that serves as a strut between the shoulder blade and the sternum (breastbone). There are two clavicles, one on the left and one on the r ...
, a small gash in his right elbow (source of the blood on his flight suit), a deep scrape on his right wrist, and multiple scrapes on the back of his right shoulder. There was considerable bruising on his right chest but he did not know how it occurred. He did not recall any bruising on his left side. He had an abrasion under his chin which he felt was consistent with the location of his chin strap, and had multiple contusions and scrapes on his face. He was diagnosed with corneal scratches and doctors removed a piece of fiberglass from his left eye during a hospital stay. The eyes did not improve so he saw an ophthalmologist after being discharged. The ophthalmologist removed some foreign matter from his left eyelid and a “silver sliver” from his right cornea. His eyes improved immediately post procedure.
References
External links
Scaled Composites biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siebold, Peter
1971 births
Living people
Scaled Composites Tier One program
Commercial astronauts
American aviators
American test pilots
Scaled Composites
Virgin Galactic
Date of birth missing (living people)
Place of birth missing (living people)
Davis Senior High School (California) alumni
People from Davis, California
California Polytechnic State University alumni