MOJAVE,
Calif. — For Marlena Rowley, watching tests of the Virgin Galactic
spaceship was just part of aviation-focused life in this small desert
town. Little did she know Friday that she'd be witnessing a tragic
crash.
Rowley, her husband and a neighbor all were gazing skyward at the spaceship and its mothership when the accident occurred, claiming the life of one pilot and seriously injuring the other. In a close-knit community like Mojave, the tragedy was a blow.
"I feel a deep sadness for the families," said Rowley, fighting back tears. "This is the heart of Mojave here."
Rowley says all appeared normal to her, watching SpaceShipTwo high above with the naked eye. The mothership dropped the spaceship, and as a result she saw two distinct pieces.
But Wayne's reaction was ominous. Looking through binoculars, he said, "That doesn't look good," she recalled Friday, about four hours after the crash.
Much of life in Mojave (Moe-HAWV-ee) is centered around the sprawling Mojave Air and Spaceport. The airport dominates the landscape, partly because of the sea of mothballed jetliners parked on its tarmacs, awaiting future owners.
Mojave is near Edwards Air Force Base, famous as the alternative landing site for the space shuttle and for its history as the test center for the nation's jet fighters and experimental rocket ships in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of Tom Wolfe's breakthrough history of the space program, The Right Stuff, takes place at Edwards.
Mojave feels much the same when it comes to making aviation history, only when it comes to commercial, rather than military, aircraft.
These days, Virgin Galactic and its partner, Scaled Composites, take up a huge amount of hangar space at the Mojave airport. The team has been working on the craft to take up to six passengers at a time to the edge of space, where they could experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth.
Now, with the accident, the town is grieving.
"This is a tragedy," Rowley says.
Rowley, her husband and a neighbor all were gazing skyward at the spaceship and its mothership when the accident occurred, claiming the life of one pilot and seriously injuring the other. In a close-knit community like Mojave, the tragedy was a blow.
"I feel a deep sadness for the families," said Rowley, fighting back tears. "This is the heart of Mojave here."
Rowley says all appeared normal to her, watching SpaceShipTwo high above with the naked eye. The mothership dropped the spaceship, and as a result she saw two distinct pieces.
But Wayne's reaction was ominous. Looking through binoculars, he said, "That doesn't look good," she recalled Friday, about four hours after the crash.
Much of life in Mojave (Moe-HAWV-ee) is centered around the sprawling Mojave Air and Spaceport. The airport dominates the landscape, partly because of the sea of mothballed jetliners parked on its tarmacs, awaiting future owners.
Mojave is near Edwards Air Force Base, famous as the alternative landing site for the space shuttle and for its history as the test center for the nation's jet fighters and experimental rocket ships in the 1950s and 1960s. Much of Tom Wolfe's breakthrough history of the space program, The Right Stuff, takes place at Edwards.
Mojave feels much the same when it comes to making aviation history, only when it comes to commercial, rather than military, aircraft.
These days, Virgin Galactic and its partner, Scaled Composites, take up a huge amount of hangar space at the Mojave airport. The team has been working on the craft to take up to six passengers at a time to the edge of space, where they could experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth.
Now, with the accident, the town is grieving.
"This is a tragedy," Rowley says.
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