spacetoday.net: NTSB begins investigation of SpaceShipTwo crash

Posted: Sun, Nov 2, 2014, 9:07 AM ET (1407 GMT)
SpaceShipTwo wreckage and investigtors (NTSB)

The National Transportation Safety Board started their investigation Saturday into the October 31 crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, an accident that killed one pilot and injured the other. The NTSB's acting chairman said late Saturday that the wreckage from the accident stretched for eight kilometers in the desert north of Mojave, California, and included the vehicle's tail booms, propellant tanks, fuselage, cockpit, and engine. The NTSB said it has extensive data from the flight, including camera mounted on SpaceShipTwo itself. The NTSB plans to remain in Mojave for up to a week, but the full investigation may take up to a year to complete. Scaled Composites said Saturday that the pilot who was killed in the accident was Michael Alsbury, a company test pilot who flew on SpaceShipTwo's first powered flight in 2013 and, most recently, in August. The injured pilot is Scaled's director of flight operations, Peter Siebold, who has also flown on several SpaceShipTwo flights and, previously, SpaceShipOne.