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 The entrepreneur has pledged to keep up the drive for space
travel, saying on the company's web site: "Space is hard - but worth
it. We will persevere and move forward together."
Friday's crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first
powered test flight since January over the Mojave, 95 miles (150 km)
north of Los Angeles, was the second disaster suffered by a private
space company in less than a week, dealing a blow to the fledgling
commercial space launch industry.
On Tuesday, an Antares rocket built and launched by Orbital Sciences
Corp exploded after liftoff from Wallops Island, Virginia,
destroying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.
In the Virgin crash, one pilot body was found in the wreckage, while
the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived
with serious injuries, according to Kern County Sheriff Donny
Youngblood.
The survivor was found more than a mile from the main wreckage of
SpaceShipTwo near the Mojave Air and Space Port, he said.
 Television footage of the crash site showed wreckage of the
spacecraft lying in two large pieces on the ground, and the company
said the spacecraft was destroyed. Youngblood said a debris field
was spread over more than a mile.
Both crew members were test pilots for Scaled Composites, the
Northrop Grumman Corp subsidiary that designed and built the
spacecraft for Virgin and lost three other employees in a July 2007
ground test accident.
"While not a NASA mission, the pain of this (new)tragedy will be
felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to
exploration," NASA, the U.S. space agency, said in a statement.
NEW FUEL
The crash occurred shortly after the craft separated from the jet
airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch.
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Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey told a news conference on
Friday the ill-fated flight was the first using a new rocket fuel
formula the company switched to in May. He said the formula "had
been proven and tested on the ground" before Friday's test launch.
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending
one of its teams to investigate.
More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to eventually
fly aboard the spaceship, which is hauled to an altitude of about
45,000 feet (13.7 kms) and released by Virgin's White Knight Two
carrier jet airplane.
Cost of a ride on the ship now goes for $250,000 and among those who
have signed up are celebrities including singer Lady Gaga and actors
Angelina Jolie and Ashton Kutcher.
The Virgin and Antares back-to-back accidents are set backs for he
commercial space launch industry, which has been taking on more work
traditionally done by the governments while also expanding
for-profit space markets, including tourism.
(Additional reporting by Irene Klotz from Cape Canaveral, Florida;
Writing by Curtis Skinner; Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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