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MOJAVE (CBSLA.com) — One person was killed and another suffered major injuries after an aircraft used by Virgin Galactic for space travel experimentation crashed Friday during a test flight, authorities confirmed.
SpaceShipTwo, carried by carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo, launched at 9:19 a.m. from a location in the Mojave Desert, according to officials from Virgin Galactic, which is owned by British billionaire Sir Richard Branson.
The aircraft was released by WhiteKnightTwo about an hour later and flew freely by rocket power for the first time since January. Friday’s flight was SpaceShipTwo’s 55th and WhiteKnightTwo’s 173rd, according to the company.
Virgin Galactic then tweeted the spaceship experienced some kind of in-flight abnormality.
