One person is dead and one person is injured after a suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said.
Two pilots were aboard the spaceship, which was undergoing its first powered test flight since January. Virgin Galactic initially said the status of the pilots was not known. But the California Highway Patrol later said one person was dead and one was injured after the crash, CNN and CNBC reported.
More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to fly aboard the spaceship, which is carried to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and released. The spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 100 kilometres (62 miles) high, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.
The spaceship is based on a prototype, called SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million US Ansari X Prize for the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.
Friday’s test was to be the spaceship’s first powered test flight since January. 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 accident is the second this week by a U.S. space company. On Tuesday, an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
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
Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. (3 of 4)
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP. (4 of 4)
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
Source:: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/virgin-galactic-s-spaceshiptwo-crashes-killing-1-1.2819996?cmp=rss
