Virgin Galactic reports loss of spaceship

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**Dreadwinter**

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/31/virgin-galactic-spaceship-problem/18253295/

MOJAVE, Calif. (AP) — Virgin Galactic reported that its SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket has been lost in Southern California. California Highway Patrol reports 1 fatality, 1 major injury.

The company tweeted Friday: "During the test, the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of SpaceShipTwo."

The company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson would not say what happened other that it was working with authorities to determine the cause of the "accident."

Kern County Fire Department reported it was heading to a location in the Mojave Desert. California Highway Patrol Officer Darlena Dotson said the agency was responding to a report of a crash in the Cantil area.

Virgin Galactic has been the front-runner in the fledgling space-tourism industry. SpaceShipTwo, typically flown by a crew of two pilots, has been under development in the desert northeast of Los Angeles.

TL;DR One dead, one severely injured. Events unfolding.

**Rusty Trombone**

Anomaly... Interesting choice of words to describe what happened. I guess 'dunno' sounds amateurish. I hope the figure it out, though, as it's a pretty cool endeavor.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Rusty Trombone wrote:
Anomaly... Interesting choice of words to describe what happened. I guess 'dunno' sounds amateurish. I hope the figure it out, though, as it's a pretty cool endeavor.

Actually it isn't.

Anomaly is a pretty standard term for describing an unknown problem with a spacecraft.

**Kilkrazy**

It is rather early to tell what went wrong.

The crash investigators have to gather all the debris and the flight recorders, interview the surviving pilot (Good Luck to his recovery!) and other team members, and put together a detailed report.

**WarAngel**

But in all seriousness. Hopes and well wishes to the injured person and to the family of fatality.

**Ouze**

This has been a bad week for private spaceflights.

**OgreChubbs**

Well it is pretty gakky someone died ..... instead of saying I don't know I think they should of said "we will comment on what happened when we have more information"

**jhe90**

Does not diminish the loss, anything daring or visionary is always going to have a degree of risk.

pushing the boundaries sadly is not a low risk achievement.

**motyak**

How many people can say that they survived a crashing spaceship though. The guy should buy a lottery ticket from hospital, he's clearly on a hot streak.

**ScootyPuffJunior**

Ouze wrote:
This has been a bad week for private spaceflights.

Indeed.

I was unaware that the Antares rocket used a forty year-old Soviet engine design to power it. Also, a flight operator used a destruct sequence to destroy the rocket before it hit the ground, shortly after the first stage malfunctioned and become separated from the rest of the rocket.

**TheMeanDM**

The government brought it down, somehow, to keep civilians from space. Otherwise we would discover the alien ships up there.

**daedalus**

Man, that sucks. :(