At least one person was killed and another suffered “major” injuries Friday after a spaceship crashed in the Mojave Desert during a test flight, authorities said.
The fatality was reported after Virgin Galactic confirmed its SpaceShipTwo experienced a “serious anomaly” shortly before 10:15 a.m. that resulted in the loss of the vessel during a test flight in the Mojave Desert.
The aircraft was reported down in the Cantil area, just east of Red Rock Canyon, according to California Highway Patrol Officer Jesse Borne. The area is about 90 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
Debris was spread out across about several miles of the remote desert region, including on Cantil Road west of its intersection with Norton Road (map).
“Today was a tough day. We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today and we’re going to get through it,” George Whitesides, the CEO and president of Virgin Galactic, said at an afternoon news conference.
The flight took off at 9:20 a.m., Stuart Witt, the CEO of Mojave Air and Space Port, stated at the news conference.
The spaceship was flying under Scaled Composites WhiteKnightTwo, which was described as its “mothership.” The larger vehicle carried it to an altitude of 45,000 feet, at which point the spaceship separated and the rocket motor was lit, according to Kevin Mickey, the president of Scaled Composites, who also spoke at the news conference.
Around 10:12 a.m, two minutes after separating from WhiteKnightTwo, Witt became aware of an “in-flight anomaly” on SpaceShipTwo, he said.
Witt, who was watching the test flight, told reporters he did not see or hear anything related to an explosion, despite what some have reported.
“I detected nothing that appeared abnormal,” he said, adding that he knew something was wrong only “when other things weren’t happening.”
One witness tweeted from the @spacecom account that they saw SpaceShipTwo blow up, and that it came down in pieces.
“We drove to one of the debris sites. Debris from the ship was scattered all over the road,” a separate tweet from the same account stated.
A number of agencies responded to the incident, including CHP, the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Kern County Fire Department.
Mike Cody, the deputy fire chief of the Kern County Fire Department, stated at the news conference that the department had a helicopter on standby.
The responding helicopter crew landed and engaged in “full patient care,” according to the Fire Department.
Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said the wounded crew member had suffered “major injuries,” but that the individual’s condition was not immediately known.
“If you can imagine a crash from that altitude, things are not going to be very pretty,” Youngblood said.
The size of the debris field appeared to indicate the spacecraft had broken up in midair, the sheriff said.
The two crew members were the only people on board the spaceship, according to the Federal Aviation Administration, which was investigating the crash.
Their names have not been released.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which will also investigate the crash, was expected to arrive in the Mojave Desert around 7:30 a.m. Saturday, said Mickey.
Richard Branson, the billionaire business mogul and founder of Virgin Galactic, was also on his way to the region and would arrive sometime Saturday, according Whitesides.
Virgin Galactic had released a brief statement on Twitter following the crash, which occurred on what was believed to have been the spaceship’s 55th flight.
“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 SpaceShipTwo,” the statement read.
The company, which bills itself as the world’s first commercial spaceline, added that it would work closely with authorities during the investigation.
Virgin Galactic had announced plans to sell trips on SpaceShipTwo in which passengers would be transported to the beginning of outer space to experience a few minutes of weightlessness, CNN reported.
“Future rests in many ways on hard days like this, but we believe we owe it to the folks who are flying these vehicles, as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we’ll do,” Whitesides said.
Witt, who has been in the business for a long time, encouraged the industry to continue its work on space tourism.
“My message to them is, ‘Stay the course,” Witt said. “This business is worthy business… It’s a cause far greater than any of singularly.”
KTLA’s Olsen Ebright and Jennifer Thang contributed to this story.
#SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo earlier today. Both are airborne now. Photo: Scaled Composites / Jason DiVenere pic.twitter.com/QCTyBZesBW
— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014
