A passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.
The crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150 km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia.
The back-to-back accidents dealt a considerable blow to the fledgling commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work traditionally done by the US government while expanding for-profit space markets, including tourism.
Television footage of the Virgin Galactic crash site showed wreckage of the spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company said the spacecraft was destroyed. Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said a debris field was spread over more than a mile.
One spaceship pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries, Youngblood said. The survivor was found more than a mile from the wreckage of the fuselage, he said.
Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the Northrop Gruman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007 ground test accident during development of the ship's propulsion system.
Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel formula the company switched to in May. He said that formula "had been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.
Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, recounted observing what appeared to be the plume from the initial firing of the spacecraft's rocket as it was released from the mothership, an indication that engine ignition had been achieved. But he said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of what went wrong afterwards.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident.
Branson said via Twitter that he was on his way to Mojave following the crash. "Thoughts with all @virgingalactic & Scaled," he tweeted.
George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.
"Space is hard, and 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," he told a news conference at the space port.
He added: "We believe we owe it to the folks who were 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."
"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin said in a statement just after the crash, adding: "We will work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause of this accident and provide updates ASAP."
The first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft, which occurred at 10:10am local time.
"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like. Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."
The crash was the second accident this week involving a commercial US space company.
On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
Friday's crash marked a major setback for Virgin Galactic, a US offshoot of billionaire Branson's London-based Virgin Group.
The company was aiming to make the world's first commercial suborbital space flights with SpaceShipTwo, a six-passenger, two-pilot spacecraft.