events
During a test flight, the VSS Enterprise, a Virgin Galactic experimental spaceflight test vehicle, suffers a catastrophic in-flight breakup and crashes in the Mojave Desert, California.
Related Wikipedia articles
VSS Enterprise
SpaceShipTwo (SS2) spaceplane
VSS Enterprise 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.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Virgin Galactic
Space tourism company
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited.Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Catastrophic failure
Sudden and total failure from which recovery is impossible
A catastrophic failure is a sudden and total failure from which recovery is impossible. Catastrophic failures often lead to cascading systems failure. The term is most commonly used for structural failures, but has often been extended to many other disciplines in which total and…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
VSS Enterprise crash
Inflight break-up of VSS Enterprise
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,…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Mojave Desert
Desert in the southwestern United States
The Mojave Desert is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named after the indigenous Mohave people, it is located primarily in southeastern California and southwestern Nevada, with small…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
California
U.S. state
California is a state in the Western United States that lies on the Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California to the south. With almost 40 million residents across…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)