Anomalous flare-up or explosion
For four and a half years, Virgin Galactic has been putting SpaceShipTwo through a series of flight tests, with the aim of eventually using it to fly people to the edge of space, 100 kilometers (62 miles) up. Friday's test was the first rocket-powered flight test since January, and the first aerial test of a new kind of plastic-based fuel that engineers thought would improve the hybrid rocket motor's performance.
The 27-foot-wide plane was slung beneath a 141-foot-wide, twin-fuselage carrier airplane called WhiteKnightTwo, and the paired planes took off from California's Mojave Air and Space Port at about 9:20 a.m. PT (12:20 p.m. ET). Each of the planes had two test pilots aboard. About 50 minutes later, WhiteKnightTwo released SpaceShipTwo for free flight from an altitude of about 50,000 feet. The rocket engine lit up and powered SpaceShipTwo skyward. Then something went wrong.
Some observers reported seeing an anomalous flare-up or explosion. Pieces of debris fell onto the desert, but parachutes were also sighted. When witnesses reached the crash site, they found one of the pilots dead. He was identified by authorities Saturday as 39-year-old Scaled Composites test pilot Michael Alsbury.
"It was not pretty," said photographer Ken Brown, who was on the scene. The other pilot, identified Saturday as Scaled Composites' Peter Siebold, 43, parachuted to the ground with injuries, and was taken to a hospital in nearby Lancaster.