A space tourism rocket part-owned by British billionaire Richard Branson has exploded during a test flight in Southern California's Mojave Desert, killing a pilot and seriously injuring another.
Virgin Galactic said it was working with authorities to find the cause of the "accident".
"During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo," Virgin Galactic tweeted.
Ken Brown, a photographer who saw the crash, said SpaceShipTwo exploded after a plane designed to take it to high altitude released it and the craft ignited its rocket motor.
Brown said the wreckage fell in the desert north of Mojave Air and Space Port, where the test flight originated. The area is about 193 kilometres north of downtown Los Angeles.
* Liftoff turns to disaster
Police said there was one fatality and one major injury, with one person parachuting out.
SpaceShipTwo, which is typically flown by two pilots, was designed to provide a suborbital thrill ride into space before it returns to Earth as a glider.
Friday's flight marked the 55th for the spaceship, which was intended to be the first of a line of craft that would open space to paying civilians.
At 18m long, SpaceShipTwo features two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.
Virgin Galactic - owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi - sells seats on each prospective journey for US$250,000, with full payment due at the time of booking.
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The company says that "future astronauts", as it calls customers, have visited Branson's Caribbean home, Necker Island, and gone through G-force training.
Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand are among the celebrities to sign up for flights.
Virgin Galactic reports taking deposits totalling more than US$80m from about 700 people.
A related venture, The Spaceship Co, is responsible for building Virgin Galactic's space vehicles.
During testing for the development of a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo in July 2007, an explosion at the Mojave spaceport killed three workers and critically injured three others.
A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report said the blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide -commonly known as laughing gas - which is used in the propulsion system of SpaceShipTwo.
The engine was not firing during that test.
Friday's accident was the second space-related explosion this week.
On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after lift-off from a launch site in Virginia. No injuries were reported that accident, which drew criticism over NASA's growing reliance on private US companies in this post-shuttle era.
Article from www.stuff.co.nz
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