Virgin Galactic spacecraft designed for commercial space travel crashed

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Virgin Galactic says plane designed for commercial space travel was undertaking test flight in California when ‘in-flight anomaly’ occurred

An image from video shows wreckage of SpaceShipTwo. Photograph: AP

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 a wide area.

The plane, SpaceShipTwo, was undertaking a test flight as part of Sir Richard Branson’s plans for commercial space travel when a “serious anomaly” occurred, the company said. Branson was on his way to the Mojave base on Saturday in the wake of the crash.


Witnesses reported the spacecraft broke apart soon after it was detached from the launch plane that carries it to 45,000ft. Rescuers found one of the pilots dead on the ground. The other, who appeared to have deployed an emergency parachute, was airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries.

A combination of photographs shows Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo detaching from the plane that carried it aloft, firing its engine and then blowing apart in the skies over the Mojave Desert in California. Photograph: Kenneth Brown/Reuters

Virgin Galactic said that SpaceShipTwo was powered by a fuel mix that had not previously been used in flight, although it had been tested extensively on the ground. The company was unable to say whether the change to the fuel mix offered an explanation for the accident, which happened just before 11am local time.

The crash served as another stark reminder the dangers of space exploration, three days after an unmanned rocket on supply mission to the international space station exploded seconds after takeoff from a Nasa launch facility in Virginia.

“Space is hard, and today was a tough day,” said George Whitesides, CEO and president of Virgin Galactic, at a news conference. “We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today and we are going to get through it,” Whitesides said.

Branson said he would persevere with the space tourism venture despite the “devastating loss” and Virgin Galactic would do everything possible to support the pilots’ families. Branson said the journey to the Mojave Desert spaceport was “one of the most difficult trips I have ever had to make” and but he wanted to be with the “dedicated and hard-working” team there. He promised full co-operation with authorities.  Read more >>

Source:  http://www.theguardian.com/science/2014/oct/31/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-crash-mojave

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