Virgin Galactic, a British spaceflight company that hopes to bring suborbital tourism flights to the public, suffered an "anomaly" aboard its SpaceShipTwo today during a test flight over the Mojave Desert in California.
#SpaceShipTwo has experienced an in-flight anomaly. Additional info and statement forthcoming.
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014Photographer Ken Brown—who was near the scene— told NBC that there was a large explosion and a crash in the desert. Both of the pilots are equipped with parachutes and at least one was spotted in the air, but the status of the pilots are unknown as of now (though a recent AP tweet says California Highway Patrol reports one is dead and the other is injured). A news conference is scheduled for 2 p.m. PT.
Reports state that preparation for today's flight took longer than expected, with the ship parked on the runway for more than three hours while attached to its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo. The mothership took about 45 minutes to reach 50,000 feet, where it released SpaceShipTwo for flight. Its been nine months since SpaceShipTwo's last test flight.
#SpaceShipTwo UPDATE: Rescue crew seen carrying person on stretcher to chopper http://t.co/AJFLHsYm8L pic.twitter.com/MJaFy0clTw
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 31, 2014Virgin Galactic has released a statement:
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 the vehicle. The WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft 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 as soon as we are able to do so.
Here is a picture of the crash from CNN:
1.
We'll update as more information is released.
UPDATE: One pilot has been confirmed dead.
