| USA TODAY | - |
In
the second commercial space disaster this week, Virgin Galactic's
tourism rocketship exploded and crashed Friday after a malfunction
during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and
seriously injuring the other.
In
the second commercial space disaster this week, Virgin Galactic's
tourism rocketship exploded and crashed Friday after a malfunction
during a test flight over the Mojave Desert, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.
A witness said the SpaceShipTwo blew up shortly after its engine fired when it was dropped from the WhiteKnight aircraft that carried it aloft, the Associated Press reported. Wreckage was scattered over a wide area near Cantil, in Kern County.
The pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital, but the co-pilot suffered fatal injuries, the Kern County Sheriff's Office reported. Their identities were not immediately released.
Virgin Galactic, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, said the craft "suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle." The malfunction was not immediately identified.
The test flight was conducted by Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic's partner. The weather was clear, and winds were light at time of the crash, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
Friday's flight was the 35th time SpaceShipTwo had been released by the mothership and was flying independently.
Branson has been developing the suborbital SpaceShipTwo at Mojave Air and Space Port, northeast of Los Angeles.
He said on Twitter he was "flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team."
"Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support," he tweeted.
He told USA TODAY in 2011 that he envisioned Virgin Galactic expanding from suborbital to orbital travel and even flights between continents that could be done in a fraction of the time they take by airplane.
Made of carbon composites, SpaceShipTwo was about twice a large as its prototype predecessor, SpaceShipOne. It was 60 feet long with a cabin diameter of 90 inches, about the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet without a floor. In addition to two pilots, it was designed to carry six passengers.
"The spaceship can be thought of as an air launched glider with a rocket motor and a couple of extra systems for spaceflight," the company says.
Virgin Galactic is owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Seats for future flights cost $250,000, prepaid.
SpaceShipTwo is one of several spacecraft owned by New York-based Virgin Galactic, a unit of privately held Virgin Group. The company also owns the mothership WhiteKnightTwo – which Branson christened Eve, after his mother – and LauncherOne, an orbital launch vehicle.
The loss of SpaceShipTwo comes on the heels of the explosion late Tuesday of an unmanned commercial resupply rocket seconds after liftoff at NASA's facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
A witness said the SpaceShipTwo blew up shortly after its engine fired when it was dropped from the WhiteKnight aircraft that carried it aloft, the Associated Press reported. Wreckage was scattered over a wide area near Cantil, in Kern County.
The pilot ejected and was taken to a hospital, but the co-pilot suffered fatal injuries, the Kern County Sheriff's Office reported. Their identities were not immediately released.
Virgin Galactic, owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, said the craft "suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of the vehicle." The malfunction was not immediately identified.
The test flight was conducted by Scaled Composites, Virgin Galactic's partner. The weather was clear, and winds were light at time of the crash, according to AccuWeather meteorologists.
Friday's flight was the 35th time SpaceShipTwo had been released by the mothership and was flying independently.
Branson has been developing the suborbital SpaceShipTwo at Mojave Air and Space Port, northeast of Los Angeles.
He said on Twitter he was "flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team."
"Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support," he tweeted.
He told USA TODAY in 2011 that he envisioned Virgin Galactic expanding from suborbital to orbital travel and even flights between continents that could be done in a fraction of the time they take by airplane.
Made of carbon composites, SpaceShipTwo was about twice a large as its prototype predecessor, SpaceShipOne. It was 60 feet long with a cabin diameter of 90 inches, about the size of a Falcon 900 executive jet without a floor. In addition to two pilots, it was designed to carry six passengers.
"The spaceship can be thought of as an air launched glider with a rocket motor and a couple of extra systems for spaceflight," the company says.
Virgin Galactic is owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Seats for future flights cost $250,000, prepaid.
SpaceShipTwo is one of several spacecraft owned by New York-based Virgin Galactic, a unit of privately held Virgin Group. The company also owns the mothership WhiteKnightTwo – which Branson christened Eve, after his mother – and LauncherOne, an orbital launch vehicle.
The loss of SpaceShipTwo comes on the heels of the explosion late Tuesday of an unmanned commercial resupply rocket seconds after liftoff at NASA's facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia.
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