Both worked for Scaled Composites, the company developing the spaceship for Virgin Galactic. Scaled Composite said Alsbury was the co-pilot for the test flight. Siebold, who was piloting SpaceShipTwo, “is alert and talking with his family and doctors,” the company said in a statement.
A former colleague said Alsbury was a “home-schooled, home-brewed” pilot who earned his way up through the ranks at the company, starting as an engineer. Alsbury had also put himself through commercial pilot school and was certified as a flight instructor.
“Mike loved what he did. I think his career ended with him doing exactly that. ... That yesterday ended up in a tragedy was kind of heart-breaking for many of us,” said Brian Binnie, another test pilot who worked at Scaled Composites for 14 years before leaving the company this year.
National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart said investigators don't yet know how Siebold got out of the rocket ship because they haven't had a chance to interview him. He said they found an undeployed parachute at the crash site.
He said a 5-mile path of debris over an area of uninhabited desert indicates the spacecraft broke up in flight. Learning where spacecraft parts fell will help investigators determine when and how the breakup occurred.
“This will be the first time we have been in the lead of a space launch (accident) that involved persons onboard,” said Hart, noting that the NTSB did participate in investigations of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters.
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