By Alex Dobuzinskis
MOJAVE (Reuters) – A passenger suborbital spaceship developed by Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, on Friday crashed during a test flight in California, USA, in an incident that left one dead and the other crew with serious injuries, authorities said.
Friday’s flight was the first test rocket propelled since January. The explosion occurred on the Mojave Desert, about 150 miles north of Los Angeles.
The accident is the second this week for a US space company. On Tuesday, a rocket exploded Orbital Sciences 15 seconds after launch, destroying a cargo destined for the International Space Station (ISS).
Television footage showed the crash, with wreckage scattered in two places. The company said it was destroyed.
The passenger killed in the crash, while the driver, who managed to eject and landed on the ground with its paracaídas- survived but has serious injuries, said a spokesman for the Kern County Sheriff.
The pilot was taken to hospital, he added.
“During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly which resulted in the loss of SpaceShipTwo,” the company said in a tweet, adding that “we will work closely with the authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide the latest news as quickly as possible. “
More than 800 people have paid or have made reservations to fly aboard the craft, which is carried to an altitude of 13.7 kilometers and launched from a rocket. The ship then turn your engine to go to 100 miles above Earth, giving passengers a view of the planet and a few minutes of weightlessness.
Branson said via Twitter that he was traveling to the crash site.
George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, Branson said he hoped to come in on Saturday morning.
“The space is difficult, and today was a tough day. We will support research as we find out what had happened today, and we will overcome,” Whitesides said at a news conference.
“We think we owe it to the guys who were flying these vehicles and those who have been working very hard on them, to understand this and move on, because that’s what we’ll do.”
(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Additional Irene Klotz Cape Canaveral In the Bureau of Santiago de Chile. Emma Pinedo Edition)
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