Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two Crashes in Mojave Desert

In a massive setback to commercial space travel, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two crashed today in the Mojave Desert during a test flight, NBC News reports.

Mojave Air and Space Port’s CEO confirmed to KGET that SpaceShip Two had indeed crashed, and that one of the plane’s two pilots was being airlifted to Lancaster for treatment. A photographer told NBC that he witnessed “a midflight explosion” and eventually found debris from the plane “scattered across a small area of the desert.” (There is no information on the status of the second pilot.)

In a statement, Virgin Galactic said that the rocket plane suffered an “in-flight anomaly” and said they would provide additional information during a press conference scheduled at 5 PM EST.

NBC adds that this was the first time that SpaceShip Two, whose predecessor famously made the flight to the edge of outer space in 2004, had fired its engines in nine months. Reportedly, Virgin Galactic was testing a new type of plastic-based fuel.

Virgin Galactic and its outsized CEO, billionaire Richard Branson, had hoped to begin offering commercial space flight as soon as next year, with celebrities such as Stephen Hawking scheduled to fly on SpaceShip Two’s maiden voyage, and over 700 people paying $250,000 each to reserve a seat.

UPDATE: Watch the live news conference below:

[h/t KGET]
[Image via screenshot/CNN]

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