California, Nov 01 (ANI): Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo space tourism rocket crashed during a test flight at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one of the two pilots aboard and seriously injuring the other. The crash of the vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 150 km north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia. Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board said it was sending one of its "go-teams" to investigate the accident. George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said he expected Branson to arrive by Saturday morning.
