[ot-caption title=”Wreckage of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket in the Mojave Desert after the rocket’s explosion during a test flight on Friday, October 31st. (via Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)” url=”https://pcpawprint.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/ss2.jpg”]

Just four days after Orbital Sciences Corp.’s Antares rocket exploded over eastern Virginia, another space tragedy occurred near Mojave, California.

On October 31st, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo exploded over the Mojave Desert in California after being launched in mid-air. SpaceShipTwo is a suborbital space-plain manufactured by The Spaceship Company, which is owned by Virgin Galactic.

After nine months of careful preparations and planning, Virgin Galactic intended to test its SpaceShipTwo rocket for the last time on Friday before allowing ordinary people to travel to space with it by the end of the year. The price tag for such an experience would be roughly $250,000 and several celebrities are already interested in joining this adventure.

However, the test-flight didn’t go as expected. At 9:20 PT, the WhiteKnightTwo airplane carrier with the attached SpaceShipTwo rocket was launched from Mojave Air and Space Port and was brought to an altitude of around 50,000 feet and at a freezing temperature of -60 degrees Celsius. After 50 minutes, SpaceShipTwo released itself from its airplane carrier and activated its hybrid rocket engine. Until then everything went as planned, but then it happened. Within two minutes of flying in mid-air at a speed of approximately 2,485 mph, SpaceShipTwo exploded and its debris scattered over parts of the Mojave Desert.

The tragedy itself did not only lie in the destruction of the spacecraft itself, but also in the killing of one of the two test pilots that were on board SpaceShipTwo. The pilot that was killed has been identified as Mike Alsbury. Peter Siebold, the second pilot on board the spacecraft, miraculously survived the crash after successfully parachuting back to Earth.

“It will be regarded as one of the most amazing test flight survival stories of all time,” says chief executive of Virgin Galactic, George Whitesides. “It is truly incredible and we are all incredibly thankful that he was able to parachute safely to the ground.”

An investigation is under way to determine the reason why SpaceShipTwo mysteriously exploded in mid-air. It is, however, interesting to note that Virgin Galactic was using a new plastic-based fuel that is supposed to increase the performance of the hybrid rocket engine. If this had anything to do with the explosion, nobody knows.

The SpaceShipTwo crash has frightened many people around the globe and many are thinking about the true implications space-travel might have. With already two tragedies within one week, people are seriously considering the danger of space-travel and if it is worth the risk.

“Space is hard, and today was a tough day,” said Whiteside. “We are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today, and we’re going to get through it. The future rests in many ways on hard, hard days like this. But we believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks who are working so hard on them to understand this and to move forward.”

Sources: BBC News, CNN News, The Guardian, NBC News, NY Daily News, Space.com