Virgin spaceship 'mid-air explosion'

A passenger spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company crashed during a test flight on Friday (October 31) near the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, killing one pilot and seriously injuring the other, officials said.

Still pictures of the craft appear to show it exploding in mid-air.

Authorities say a pilot was killed in the crash and his body was found in the wreckage, while the second pilot, who ejected and parachuted to the ground, survived with serious injuries.

Friday's crash occurred shortly after the craft, dubbed SpaceShipTwo, separated from the jet airplane that carried it aloft for its high-altitude launch, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The crash of the suborbital vehicle, undergoing its first powered test flight since January over the Mojave Desert, 95 miles (150 km) north of Los Angeles, came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments a