Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during California test flight
 

CAPE CANAVERAL Fla. (Reuters) - A suborbital passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson?s Virgin Galactic crashed during a test flight on Friday at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, officials said.

Two pilots were aboard the spaceship, which was undergoing its first powered test flight since January. It was not immediately known if they were able to parachute to safety.

More than 800 people have paid or put down deposits to fly aboard the spaceship, which is carried to an altitude of about 45,000 feet and released. The spaceship then fires its rocket motor to catapult it to about 62 miles (100 km) high, giving passengers a view of the planet set against the blackness of space and a few minutes of weightlessness.

The spaceship is based on a prototype, called SpaceShipOne, which 10 years ago won the $10 million Ansari X Prize for the first privately developed manned spacecraft to fly in space.

Friday?s test was to be the spaceship?s first powered test flight since January. In May, Virgin Galactic and spaceship developer Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Corp, switched to an alternative plastic-type of fuel grain for the hybrid rocket motor.

The accident is the second this week by 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.

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uh oh spagettio

update: 1 dead after Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during test flight

RIP

Those test pilots got some big balls

why did they keep calling it an anomaly when its a crash?

lance bass from nsync dead?

No safe space visits for next 50 years, we are just technology weak

my brother works out in that area but not for that program

drat, I was planning on visiting wehateporn and chatting over tea and strumpets.

tang and poptarts :2 cents:

Gravity is a harsh mistress.

Because something happened when they fired up the rocket which then caused it to crash

That solves that. :thumbsup

I want my deposit back.

its safe :)

Bad week for space flight huh?

well american yeah :1orglaugh russia just fine

problem is the fuel, that is why the program is too late, they are testing it, and looks like it will be the one and only real problem for them ... :2 cents: i am a big fan, r.i.p. and hope they will find sollution soon! :thumbsup

Wow that's too bad. I hope this doesn't spell the end of Virgin Galactic.

the technology im thinking they should never get.

What is their ratio, in terms of deadly accidents and launches compared to NASA?

Comparable launches of course...

?

please post more news about people dying

NASA lost shitloads of rockets in the 50's and 60's as they worked on getting it right. Even still to this day it's a gamble.

As Buzz aldrin said when asked what he thought about when sitting atop the rocket ship.. His answer was.. "That it was built by the lowest bidder".

its news :2 cents: cant handle it? curl up and ...