The debris field of SpaceShipTwo was spread
out over 5 miles, Christopher Hart, acting head of the National
Transportation Safety Board, said at a press conference Saturday night.
The wide dispersal indicates an inflight breakup, he said.
"We know that there was an inflight separation but don't yet know what caused it," Hart said.
The crash killed one pilot, Michael Alsbury, and injured another, Peter Siebold. The two were the sole occupants of the the spacecraft designed to take as many as six passengers on sightseeing flights to the edge of space, where they could experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth.
A
co-worker, Clint Nichols, described Alsbury as "a great pilot, a great
engineer" who was well known in the test-pilot community.
Scaled Composites, designer and builder of the craft, said Siebold was alert and talking to his family and doctors in the hospital. The company released photos of both men. Hart said NTSB investigators had not yet talked to Siebold.
The full investigation could take a year. Hart said investigators have a trove of camera footage to sift through and about 1,000 telemetry sources from the test flight. Hart says there were six cameras aboard SpaceShipTwo, three cameras on the mothership, and a range camera and video from the chase aircraft.
An eyewitness who watched the fatal flight from the ground through binoculars said Saturday that it appeared to him that the trouble began as soon as the mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, released the spacecraft. SpaceShipTwo normally drops from the mothership, then ignites its rocket engine to climb further into the atmosphere.
As
soon as the release occurred, SpaceShipTwo turned upside down and
kicked up as if it were going back in the direction of the mothership,
says Wayne Rowley who was watching with his wife, Marlena. "It might
have been 10 seconds" before the trouble began, far less than the two
minutes into the flight that had been indicated Friday by officials.
"It separated and I thought, 'Not good,'" said Rowley, interviewed at his Mojave home by USA TODAY on Saturday. There was no explosion. He said the craft dissappeared behind clouds and he couldn't see any more. He remarked to his wife at the time that something didn't look right.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, the mogul behind the commercial space venture, is anxious to hear what the NTSB learns.
"We are determined to find out what went wrong," Branson, the British billionaire and adventurer who has become the public face of the space venture, said at a news conference Saturday.
Branson
said he would wait to hear from the NTSB before offering details on the
crash. He slammed what he called "slightly irresponsible" speculation
from people who have no access to the facts, but the usually flamboyant
adventurer sounded hesitant about the future of the project.
Asked twice about Virgin Galactic's plans to send people into space for a fee of up to $250,000, Branson took a long pause before answering.
"It's fair to say all 400 engineers who work here and most people in the world would love to see the dream living on," he said. "We owe it to our pilots."
"We hope that one day the test pilots will enable people to go to space safely," Branson said. "We would love to finish what we started some years ago. ... This is the start of a long program."
Branson left the news conference to speak with about 400 members of the Virgin Galactic team and employees of Scaled Composites, which was conducting the test.
In a typical NTSB investigation, staff members collect pieces of the craft and reassemble them in a hangar. The engines will be inspected for any failures, and data collected during the flight will be analyzed.
Different investigative groups were formed to look at the vehicle, its systems, engine, performance, data and operations, Hart said.
"We know that there was an inflight separation but don't yet know what caused it," Hart said.
The crash killed one pilot, Michael Alsbury, and injured another, Peter Siebold. The two were the sole occupants of the the spacecraft designed to take as many as six passengers on sightseeing flights to the edge of space, where they could experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the earth.
Scaled Composites, designer and builder of the craft, said Siebold was alert and talking to his family and doctors in the hospital. The company released photos of both men. Hart said NTSB investigators had not yet talked to Siebold.
The full investigation could take a year. Hart said investigators have a trove of camera footage to sift through and about 1,000 telemetry sources from the test flight. Hart says there were six cameras aboard SpaceShipTwo, three cameras on the mothership, and a range camera and video from the chase aircraft.
An eyewitness who watched the fatal flight from the ground through binoculars said Saturday that it appeared to him that the trouble began as soon as the mothership, WhiteKnightTwo, released the spacecraft. SpaceShipTwo normally drops from the mothership, then ignites its rocket engine to climb further into the atmosphere.
"It separated and I thought, 'Not good,'" said Rowley, interviewed at his Mojave home by USA TODAY on Saturday. There was no explosion. He said the craft dissappeared behind clouds and he couldn't see any more. He remarked to his wife at the time that something didn't look right.
Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, the mogul behind the commercial space venture, is anxious to hear what the NTSB learns.
"We are determined to find out what went wrong," Branson, the British billionaire and adventurer who has become the public face of the space venture, said at a news conference Saturday.
Federal investigators are sifting through the wreckage of a private
Virgin Galactic spaceship a day after the craft exploded and broke apart
midflight, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other.
Asked twice about Virgin Galactic's plans to send people into space for a fee of up to $250,000, Branson took a long pause before answering.
"It's fair to say all 400 engineers who work here and most people in the world would love to see the dream living on," he said. "We owe it to our pilots."
"We hope that one day the test pilots will enable people to go to space safely," Branson said. "We would love to finish what we started some years ago. ... This is the start of a long program."
Branson left the news conference to speak with about 400 members of the Virgin Galactic team and employees of Scaled Composites, which was conducting the test.
In a typical NTSB investigation, staff members collect pieces of the craft and reassemble them in a hangar. The engines will be inspected for any failures, and data collected during the flight will be analyzed.
Different investigative groups were formed to look at the vehicle, its systems, engine, performance, data and operations, Hart said.
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