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Business News/ News / World/  Virgin Galactic spaceship crash kills test pilot in California
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Virgin Galactic spaceship crash kills test pilot in California

Ground controllers lost contact with Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo just after the ship's release from the WhiteKnightTwo jet that carried it aloft

Wreckage from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is shown in this still image captured from KNBC video footage from Mojave, California. The suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said. Photo: ReutersPremium
Wreckage from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is shown in this still image captured from KNBC video footage from Mojave, California. The suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said. Photo: Reuters

Dallas/Chicago: A spacecraft for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Ltd tourism operator crashed during a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert, killing the co-pilot and injuring the pilot.

The pilot ejected and suffered “moderate to major injuries," Kern County Sheriff’s spokesman Ray Pruitt said today. The US Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board said they were investigating. Television images showed wreckage scattered on the desert floor.

Ground controllers lost contact with Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo just after 10 a.m. local time following the ship’s release from the WhiteKnightTwo jet that carried it aloft, said an FAA spokesman, Lynn Lunsford. The Associated Press cited a photographer who witnessed the crash as saying that SpaceShipTwo exploded after being dropped by the carrier aircraft.

While the dawning of a second U.S. space age has generated a buzz because of the involvement of billionaires such as Branson, Elon Musk, Paul Allen and Jeff Bezos, the loss of a second private craft this week served as a reminder that the risks haven’t diminished with time.

“There is a price to be paid for a whole new era of a very complex and risky business," said Marco Caceres, director of space studies for Fairfax, Virginia-based consultant Teal Group. “A lot of money is going to be lost and people are going to die. If you want to develop this industry any time soon, you have to take some risks, and that means flying a lot."

Briefing planned

Mojave Air andSpace Port, where Virgin Galactic flies its suborbital craft, set a news conference for 5 pm New York time. The FAA didn’t give details on either of the pilots, beyond confirming that SpaceShipTwo had two people on board.

“We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP," Virgin Galactic said in a message posted on its Twitter feed.

This week’s accidents are drawing attention to one of the drawbacks of slashing spending on the National Aeronautic and Space Administration and giving entities beholden to shareholders a greater role in orbital and suborbital flight, Caceres said. Companies aren’t flying dozens of test flights before attempting missions, as NASA did in developing rockets during the 1960s and 1970s.

The Orbital Sciences Corp. rocket that blew up on a Virginia launch pad Oct. 28 had only flown two test flights before ferrying its first load of cargo to the International Space Station earlier this year.

“That’s not nearly enough," Caceres said.

Launch target

Branson said last month that Virgin Galactic was targeting its first commercial flight in spring 2015, with the billionaire and his son to be aboard for the initial launch. That reflected a change from his initial timetable for operations this year. He said at the time that almost 800 would-be space tourists had signed up for $250,000 trips.

Virgin Galactic plans to operate commercial flights from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The company sent the WhiteKnightTwo carrier plane to New Mexico last month to aid familiarization with airspace rules in the El Paso area and practice landings and diversions, as well as simulate launches.

The program has suffered numerous setbacks, with three people working for Virgin partner Scaled Composites—now a unit of Northrop Grumman Corp.—killed in an explosion in 2007.

Virgin Galactic—backed by Abu Dhabi-based Aabar Investments PJS—says it’s still on track to become the world’s first commercial spaceline, having accepted more than $80 million in deposits from a clientele that includes some of the world’s highest net-worth individuals.

Under the Virgin plan, the WhiteKnightTwo carries the SpaceShipTwo to almost 50,000 ft. From there, the rocket-powered craft is to climb to 360,000 ft, letting passengers experience weightlessness, dark skies and view the curvature of the Earth. Bloomberg

Christopher Jasper in London and Jennifer Kaplan in New York contributed to this story.

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Published: 01 Nov 2014, 01:57 AM IST
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