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The VSS Enterprise crash occurred on October 31, 2014, when the VSS Enterprise, a SpaceShipTwo experimental spaceflight test vehicle operated by Virgin Galactic, suffered a catastrophic in-flight breakup during a test flight and crashed in the Mojave Desert near Cantil, California.
Three of the flights had flown above the Kármán line (edge of space), and one was intended to do so. In each of these accidents the entire crew was killed. As of December 2023, a total of 676 people have flown into space and 19 of them have died. This sets the current statistical fatality rate at 2.8 percent.
The spaceship was officially unveiled to the public on 7 December 2009 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. [2] On 29 April 2013, after nearly three years of unpowered testing, the first SS2 constructed successfully performed its first powered test flight. [3]
VSS Enterprise (tail number: N339SS [1]) was the first SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane, built by Scaled Composites for Virgin Galactic.As of 2004, it was planned to be the first of five commercial suborbital SS2 spacecraft planned by Virgin Galactic.
The spaceship was unveiled on 19 February 2016, [23] as Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson had projected in November 2015; ground and flight testing commenced thereafter. [ 24 ] [ 25 ] VSS Unity was the second SpaceShipTwo to be completed; the first, VSS Enterprise , was destroyed in a crash in late October 2014.
At about 3 p.m. local time, a large metallic ring weighing about 1,100 pounds and measuring 8 feet in diameter crash-landed in the village, the Kenya Space Agency said in a statement.
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Michael was born to Rich and Linda Alsbury in Santa Clara, California, but grew up in Scotts Valley, California, graduating from Soquel High School as a valedictorian in 1993.