Virgin passenger spaceship crashes in test flight

A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight yesterday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one crew member and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

The vehicle was undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave desert, 150 km north of Los Angeles.

The crash came days after another commercial space company, Orbital Sciences, lost a rocket in an explosion in Virginia moments after liftoff.

Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying on the ground.

Pilot ejected

The co-pilot was killed in the crash, while the pilot, who ejected, was injured, Kern County Sheriff’s spokesman Ray Pruitt said. The pilot was found at the scene and taken to a local hospital, he said.

Richard Branson said on Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash: "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team," he tweeted.

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually fly aboard the spaceship, which is carried to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and released. Its rocket motor then catapults it to 100km above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

The vehicle is based on a prototype, SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for being the first privately developed manned craft to fly in space.

‘Serious anomaly’

“During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo,” Virgin tweeted, adding: “We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP.”

The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial space firm. On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

In May, Virgin Galactic and spaceship developer Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp, switched to an alternative plastic-type of fuel grain for the hybrid rocket motor.

The crash was a setback for Virgin Galactic, a US offshoot of Branson’s London-based Virgin Group. SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger spacecraft is aiming to make the world’s first commercial suborbital space flights. – (Reuters)