Tough week for private flight: 1 dead, 1 injured in Virgin Galactic crash

A spacecraft for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Ltd. crashed on a test flight in California, killing one pilot, injuring another and denting the U.K. billionaire’s high-flying tourism dreams. U.S. officials opened an inquiry into the second accident this week involving a private spaceship. This one involved a fatality, the co-pilot, while the pilot was hurt after ejecting. The survivor was seriously hurt and is “doing as well as can be expected,” Virgin Galactic partner Scaled Composites LLC said.

During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo.

Virgin in a tweet

The accident is the second this week for a U.S. space company. On Tuesday, an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded 15 seconds after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia, destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. Virgin has repeatedly pushed back the timetable for when the $250,000 flights were to begin, pointing to delays in development and testing of the rocket ship.

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