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Virgin Galactic Spaceship Destroyed in Test Flight Mishap

At least one pilot is feared dead.
Image: 23ABC News

Earlier today, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, which was set to begin ferrying tourists to space as early as January, was destroyed in a "test flight anomaly," the second big commercial spaceflight disaster of the week. CNBC is reporting one fatality and one minor injury as a result of the crash.

It's still not clear exactly what happened during the test flight, but people who are in southern California, where Virgin Galactic has been testing, said that it "blew up." The company confirmed that SpaceShipTwo was completely lost.

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[Update: Here is everything we know about the incident after a Virgin Galactic press conference.]

Friday's flight was SpaceShipTwo's first rocket-powered test flight in nine months—since last flying in January, the company changed the fuel mixture used to power the rocket. Virgin Galactic's plan to get people to suborbital space is much different than some of its competitors: Instead of launching a spacecraft aboard a standard rocket, the craft is carried high into the sky using a traditional jet, it's then dropped into the air and the rocket engages.

In a series of tweets, the company said that "during the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo. [White Knight Two, the jet that carries the craft] landed safely."

That seems to suggest that the craft did indeed suffer a mishap during the test and not during landing or during takeoff. The craft took off from the Mojave Air and Space Port.

It's the second major commercial space loss of the week: Earlier, Orbital Science's Antares rocket exploded during an International Space Station refuel mission.

This isn't the first accident that has happened during the testing of SpaceShipTwo. Back in 2007, three employees of Scaled Composites—the company Virgin Galactic has contracted to make the ship—were killed while testing the craft's engine. That accident was attributed to a "nitrous oxide flash explosion."

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That explosion "occurred during propellant flow testing on SpaceShipTwo," Space.com reported. The engine has no doubt been through numerous modifications since then, however.

Last month, I attended an event in New York City in which Virgin CEO Richard Branson and Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides suggested that its first commercial customers, of which there are several thousand, would be flown into space starting in January. Whitesides said he hoped to give Branson a "Christmas surprise," by taking him into space around that time.

"We're completing our final testing phase this fall, hoping to have a Christmas surprise for Richard," Whitesides said.

That certainly seems out of the question now.

This story is developing and will be updated.