A Virgin Galactic spacecraft crashed after an explosion during a test flight over the Mojave desert on Friday, killing one of the pilots, seriously injuring another and leaving debris scattered over the area.
The plane, SpaceShipTwo, was undertaking a test flight as part of Virgin Galactic’s plans for commercial space travel when a “serious anomaly” occurred, the company said.
UPDATE:Virgin Galactic's partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of #SpaceShipTwo earlier today. (1 of 4)
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely. (2 of 4)
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
Two pilots are usually on board for the test flights, launched from a base in the Mojave desert. The California Highway Patrol confirmed that one person was dead and another had suffered “major injuries” in the accident, which happened at 10.51am local time. The survivor was flown to hospital by air ambulance.
“We are going to secure the scene until the appropriate agency that investigates this comes out,” said Jesse Borne, a California Highway officer based in Mojave.
A spokesman for Kern county sheriff said the co-pilot of the plane had been killed, while the pilot ejected and suffered “moderate to major injuries”.
SpaceShipTwo is the second-stage launch vehicle for Virgin Galactic’s space flight program. It is designed to disconnect from the propeller-engined WhiteKnight (WK2) craft and ascend to space under rocket power, then return to earth on its own power.
Virgin Galactic, part-owner by the entrepreneur Richard Branson, said its top concern was the status of the pilots onboard SpaceShipTwo, which was operated in partnership with the aerospace company Scaled Composites. In a series of posts on Twitter, the company said: “Virgin Galactic’s partner Scaled Composites conducted a powered test flight of #SpaceShipTwo earlier today. During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely.
“Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP.”
Ken Brown, a photographer who saw the crash, said the space tourism craft exploded after it was released from the carrier plane, the Associated Press reported.
Doug Messier, a blogger who runs the website Parabolic Arc, which reports on space news, wrote on Twitter that he witnessed the crash from Jawbone Station, which is on a ridge overlooking the desert where the craft crashed.
“We saw the twin contrails of WhiteKnightTwo overhead. They do that prior to a drop,” he tweeted. “#SpaceShipTwo dropped. From what I could tell, motor fired and then stopped then fired again. I think that’s what happened.”
He reported that clouds made it hard to see clearly, but it appeared that SpaceShipTwo “broke apart and started coming down in pieces over the desert.” He added: “We started seeing clouds of dirt where pieces of the ship came down. One after another. At least three.” Messier reported then driving to one of the debris sites. “Debris from the ship was scattered all over the road,” he said.
The Federal Aviation Association said it was investigating the accident. It said: “Just after 10am PT today, ground controllers at the Mojave Spaceport lost contact with SpaceShipTwo, an experimental space flight vehicle. The incident occurred over the Mojave desert shortly after the space flight vehicle separated from WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle that carried it aloft.
“Two crew members were on board SpaceShipTwo at the time of the incident. WhiteKnightTwo remained airborne after the incident.”
