spacetoday.net: SpaceShipTwo crashes in test flight, one pilot killed

Posted: Sat, Nov 1, 2014, 9:21 AM ET (1321 GMT)
SpaceShipTwo third powered flight (MARS Scientific/Clay Center Observatory)

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo suborbital spaceplane crashed during a test flight Friday near Mojave, California, killing one pilot and injuring the other. The vehicle, making its first powered flight since January, suffered an "inflight anomaly" shortly after being released from its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft and igniting its hybrid rocket motor. The vehicle broke apart and crashed about 40 kilometers north of the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the vehicles took off about an hour earlier. The identities of the pilots on board SpaceShipTwo have not been disclosed, although both are employees of Scaled Composites, the company developing SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. The flight was the first for SpaceShipTwo using a different hybrid rocket motor, replacing the rubber fuel previously used with plastic. That motor had undergone a series of tests on the ground prior to Friday's flight. Engine problems have delayed the development of SpaceShipTwo by several years. In 2007, a test stand accident on Mojave during testing of an earlier hybrid rocket motor design killed three Scaled Composites employees. The National Transportation Safety Board is expected to have investigators on the scene of the crash Saturday morning.