Virgin Galactic owner and founder Sir Richard Branson will meet the Virgin Galactic space team after the crash of the company's SpaceShipTwo space plane last Friday that killed one pilot and severely injured another.

SpaceShipTwo's first test flight since January ended in a tragic accident above the Mojave Desert some 150 kilometers from Los Angeles, California. The tragedy is the second space flight disaster this week.

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Orbital Science's Antares rocket exploded and crashed Tuesday at Wallops Island, Virginia. It was carrying cargo for astronauts at the International Space Station.

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said among the wreckage of the Virgin Atlantic suborbital vehicle was a pilot's dead body. The other pilot escaped by ejecting and parachuting back to the ground but sustained serious injuries.

The survivor came down more than a mile from SpaceShipTwo's main wreckage site near the Mojave Air and Space Port. Reports said debris was spread out for more than one mile.

The two pilots worked for Scale Composites, which designed and built the space plane for Virgin Galactic. Virgin Atlantic released a statement confirming SpaceShipTwo was destroyed by the crash.

The crash occurred shortly after the separation of SpaceShipTwo from its mother plane, White Knight Two, at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Initial investigation pointed to the space plane's new fuel as a probable cause of the disaster.

Scaled Composites President Kevin Mickey said the ill fated test flight was the first time a new rocket fuel formula was used by SpaceShipTwo. Mickey, however, asserted the new fuel had been proven and tested before Friday's test launch.

An investigation is being conducted by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board.

SpaceShipTwo will propel space tourists into lower Earth orbit at an altitude of 45,000 feet after being launched by White Knight Two.

To date, more than 800 space tourists have paid US$250,000 each for a seat aboard SpaceShipTwo since 2007.

Tagsvirgin galactic spaceshiptwo crash, Virgin Galactic, SpaceShipTwo