Developing Story: Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship Two Crashes In Mojave Desert during test flight

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo crashed in Mojave Desert after experiencing an in-flight “anomaly” earlier today.

On Oct. 31, during the first test of a new hybrid rocket motor at Mojave, California, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) crashed causing, based on current news reports, 1 dead and 1 seriously injured pilot.

During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. WK2 landed safely. (2 of 4)

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) October 31, 2014

Today’s flight, the first since January, was aimed at testing a new fuel mixture for the SS2’s hybrid rocket engine. The suborbital, air-launched spaceplane designed for space tourism at 250K USD a seat, spent more than three hours on the Mojave runway before the go ahead for launch for given at 09.19 AM Local Time.

About 45 minutes later, the aircraft was released by WhiteKnightTwo mothership, at an altitude of 50,000 feet. Witnesses reported the aircraft suffered a failure after separation from the mothership. It then blew up and separated in several parts.

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.