Virgin Galactic has confirmed that their SpaceShipTwo spaceship crashed in the Mojave Desert during a powered test flight earlier today. Officials with the California Highway Patrol have confirmed that one of the two pilots has died and the other is being hospitalized with major injuries.
Here is the full statement from Virgin Galactic:
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. Our first concern is the status of the pilots, which is unknown at this time. We will work closely with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of the accident and provide updates as soon as we are able to do so.
Here is a video of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crash site just after the incident from ABC 7:
Meanwhile, photos have been streaming in from the crash site on Twitter:
Debris from Virgin Galactic's #SpaceShipTwo following accident in Mojave Desert http://t.co/iPFykUL9XF pic.twitter.com/r07Ps7SKB9
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 31, 2014
PHOTOS: Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo accident http://t.co/NONMPVCMrW pic.twitter.com/kO5i5aWzN4
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) October 31, 2014
#SpaceShipTwo (N339SS) lost during test flight; two crew reportedly ejected. pic.twitter.com/IZgzxAhjk1
— AviationSafety (@AviationSafety) October 31, 2014
The suborbital test flight left California’s Mojave Air and Spaceport at 9:19AM PDT this morning. According to Aviation Week, the flight was to test a new fuel:
The flight was testing the performance of the new polyamide-based grain that was adopted in place of the hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene, a form of rubber that was used for the first series of powered tests. Scaled and Virgin, which announced the decision to change to the new fuel in May, made the switch in hopes of providing a longer, more energetic burn with lower thrust oscillations.
The director of the Mojave Air and Space Port, Stu Witt, has scheduled a press conference for 2PM local time.
In case you were unaware, Virgin Galactic has been selling seats aboard their spaceship to notable wealthy aspiring space tourists such as Tm Hanks, Justin Bieber, Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio.
