---
title: "Virgin Galactic Space Rocket Crashes In The Mohave Desert"
description: "Virgin Galactic space rocket crashed over California's Mojave Desert on a test flight. The tragedy occurred when SpaceShipTwo exploded shortly after take-off on Friday."
date: "2014-11-04"
modified: "2015-08-13"
authors:
  - name: "StefanCretu"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/stefancretu"
url: "https://futurism.com/virgin-galactic-space-rocket-crashes-mohave-desert"
categories:
  - "Off-World"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "space"
---

# Virgin Galactic Space Rocket Crashes In The Mohave Desert

![Default Futurism featured image](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Futurism-Filler-Image.jpg>)

- Virgin chief Sir Richard Branson said he was "determined to find out what went wrong" and learn from the tragedy
- The co-pilot, named as Michael Alsbury, employee of Scaled Composites, the company that designed SpaceShipTwo, died when the explosion occurred
- Virgin Galactic would be free to conduct further flights while the investigation is underway