The mystery of the pilot's survival in the Virgin Galactic's Spaceship Two crash continues.
Virgin Galactic Spaceship Two crashed in the Mohave Desert on Friday, killing one test pilot. The disaster is still under investigation, raising questions about the future of commercial flights in space, according to NBC News.
Spaceship Two, the flagship of the British billionaire's commercial spaceflight venture, took off on a test flight yesterday morning from the Virgin Galactic Base, at the Mojave Air and Space Port, a little under 100 miles north-east of Los Angeles. Two test pilots equipped with parachutes were thought to be on board the spacecraft, and local authorities said one had died, while the other managed to eject from the plane and was transported to hospital with "moderate to major" injuries.
Investigators also are trying to determine how surviving pilot Pete Siebold, 43, managed to get out of the rocket plane and parachute to the ground from an altitude of roughly 50,000 feet, an altitude virtually devoid of oxygen, according to NBC News.
Hart said Siebold, who was hospitalized with a shoulder injury, was sitting in the right-hand seat, so it would have been difficult if not impossible for him to have escaped through a hatch in the lower left-hand side of the cockpit.
The crash came three days after the unmanned rocket of another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp , exploded during liftoff from a commercial launch pad in Virginia on a mission to deliver cargo to the International Space Station under contract with NASA.
On Monday, Branson vowed to determine the cause of Friday's crash and correct the problem. "We need to know exactly what happened to make absolutely certain it will never happen again," he told CBS's "This Morning" program.
Hart told a news conference on Sunday investigators had determined that the spacecraft's tail system was supposed to have been released for deployment as the craft was traveling about 1.4 times the speed of sound. Instead, the tail section began pivoting when the vehicle was flying at Mach 1, the speed of sound.
"I'm not stating that this is the cause of the mishap. We have months and months of investigation to determine what the cause was," Hart said.
Asked if pilot error was a possible factor, Hart said: "We are looking at all of these issues to determine what the root cause of this mishap was. We are looking at a number of possibilities, including that possibility."
"They're indicating that that may well be the cause, but we need them to examine it further and let us know," he told NBC's "Today" show.
Spaceship Two's propellant tanks and engine were recovered intact, indicating there was no explosion. "The engine burn was normal up until the extension of the feathers," Hart told reporters.
Branson said Monday his company's venture is "absolutely" worth the risks.
"It's a grand program, which has had a horrible setback, but I don't think anybody would want us to abandon it at this stage," he told NBC.
Virgin Galactic is a U.S. offshoot of the London-based Virgin Group founded by Branson, whose empire ranges from airlines to music stores and mobile phone.
