WATCH: MOJAVE SpaceShipTwo PRESS CONFERENCE
MOJAVE, CA - SpaceShipTwo, the Virgin Galactic space plane, has crashed east of Mojave, according to the director of the Mojave Air and Space Port Stuart Witt. The California Highway Patrol has confirmed the death of one test pilot. A medical helicopter carried one patient with major injuries to Antelope Valley hospital for treatment.
At 10:13 a.m. Friday, Virgin Galactic announced that the rocket plane had "experienced an in-flight anomaly" on its Twitter page. The first reports of a downed aircraft came in at 10:51 a.m. Officials refused to release the names of the victims, but said their families had been notified. When asked about the pilot in the hospital's condition, aerospace company Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey said that the pilot was "doing as well as can be expected."
The Kern County Sheriff's Department is currently leading the investigation.
"Space is hard, and today was a tough day," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. "We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it. The future rests... on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles, as well as the folks who were working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward."
Officials at Virgin Galactic and Kern County-based Scaled Composites said the rocket took off from Mojave Spaceport around 9:20 a.m., nestled underneath the White Knight Two glider that carried SpaceShipTwo to altitude.
About 50 minutes later SpaceShipTwo separated from the mothership, and the pilots were set to fire the rockets into space when something went wrong.
"I detected nothing that appeared abnormal," Witt said. "I know I was briefed the plume would look different this time, and it did, but I couldn't detect anything."
Witt specified that there was no explosion.
Virgin Galactic worked with Scaled Composites on the space craft, and in a Friday press conference hours after the crash, Whitesides confirmed that the pilots involved were from Scaled Composites.
This was the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo since a May change in fuel was announced. Previously, the hybrid rocket, which combines both a solid and liquid ignition source, was powered by a rubber-based solid fuel. However in May, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whiteside announced that SS2's rocket, RM2, would now be powered by polyamide, a thermoplastic that was developed at Scaled Composites, the designer of SS2.
Virgin Galactic released a statement to NBC News about the crash:
"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."
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said on Twitter Friday "thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team." He is expected to arrive Saturday morning, and another press conference is planned.
MOJAVE, CA - SpaceShipTwo, the Virgin Galactic space plane, has crashed east of Mojave, according to the director of the Mojave Air and Space Port Stuart Witt. The California Highway Patrol has confirmed the death of one test pilot. A medical helicopter carried one patient with major injuries to Antelope Valley hospital for treatment.
At 10:13 a.m. Friday, Virgin Galactic announced that the rocket plane had "experienced an in-flight anomaly" on its Twitter page. The first reports of a downed aircraft came in at 10:51 a.m. Officials refused to release the names of the victims, but said their families had been notified. When asked about the pilot in the hospital's condition, aerospace company Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey said that the pilot was "doing as well as can be expected."
The Kern County Sheriff's Department is currently leading the investigation.
"Space is hard, and today was a tough day," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides. "We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we're going to get through it. The future rests... on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles, as well as the folks who were working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward."
Officials at Virgin Galactic and Kern County-based Scaled Composites said the rocket took off from Mojave Spaceport around 9:20 a.m., nestled underneath the White Knight Two glider that carried SpaceShipTwo to altitude.
About 50 minutes later SpaceShipTwo separated from the mothership, and the pilots were set to fire the rockets into space when something went wrong.
"I detected nothing that appeared abnormal," Witt said. "I know I was briefed the plume would look different this time, and it did, but I couldn't detect anything."
Witt specified that there was no explosion.
Virgin Galactic worked with Scaled Composites on the space craft, and in a Friday press conference hours after the crash, Whitesides confirmed that the pilots involved were from Scaled Composites.
This was the first powered flight of SpaceShipTwo since a May change in fuel was announced. Previously, the hybrid rocket, which combines both a solid and liquid ignition source, was powered by a rubber-based solid fuel. However in May, Virgin Galactic CEO George Whiteside announced that SS2's rocket, RM2, would now be powered by polyamide, a thermoplastic that was developed at Scaled Composites, the designer of SS2.
Virgin Galactic released a statement to NBC News about the crash:
"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."
Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, said on Twitter Friday "thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled, thanks for all your messages of support. I'm flying to Mojave immediately to be with the team." He is expected to arrive Saturday morning, and another press conference is planned.