Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic on Twitter
Virgin Galactic, the fledgling space tourism venture of billionaire aviator Sir Richard Branson, suffered a setback today when its SpaceShip Two rocket exploded and crashed in the Mojave Desert in California.
A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol told NBC News there was one fatality and one major injury. That would be consistent with the two-pilot system Virgin Galactic uses during test flights.
London's Daily Mirror newspaper has photos of what it says is debris from the crash.
At approximately 1:30 p.m. EDT, Virgin Galactic tweeted the following:
WK2 would be WhiteKnightTwo, the carrier airplane that takes SpaceShipTwo into orbit before releasing it under its own power.
Virgin Galactic later tweeted:
NBC News, in addition to reporting the one death and one injury, said SpaceShipTwo was experimenting with a new fuel source.
SpaceShipTwo has room for six passengers. Nobody other than the pilots was believed to be on-board.
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