Virgin Galactic crash: Branson vows to carry on with his space quest Mojave is also where I want to be - with the dedicated and hard-working people who are now in shock at this devastating loss. All our thoughts are with the families of everyone affected by this tragic event, and we are doing everything we can to support them. Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo came apart at an altitude of 45,000ft and crashed in three pieces 25 miles north of Mojave Air and Space Port, from where it had taken off on Friday. One pilot was found dead inside the wreckage. A second parachuted out and is in hospital with what have been described as "major injuries." The ship had been released from its carrier aircraft WhiteKnightTwo at 10.10am. Two minutes later controllers became aware of what they initially described as an "anomaly." Eyewitness Doug Messier, managing editor of Parabolic Arc magazine, said SpaceShipTwo's engine sputtered after it was released by WhiteKnightTwo. He told Space,com: It looked like the engine didn't perform properly. Normally it would burn and it would burn for a certain period of time. It looked like it may have started and then stopped and then started again. We drove out and found one of the debris areas, it had hit the edge of the road. There were pieces of the fuselage and pieces of debris on the road, and also in the brush all around There was a seat with a body in it - I don't know who it was. Stuart Witt, chief executive of the spaceport, who was watching, said: "From my eyes and my ears I detected nothing that appeared abnormal. If there was a huge explosion that occurred I didn't see it. Because of the very light cirrus clouds I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. Then there was a radio call, something about a chute. In May Virgin Galactic announced it was switching to a polymide-based fuel - a type of thermoplastic - from a type of rubber called HTPB. More than 500 people have already reserved seats on Virgin Galactic, which is selling tickets at $250,000 each for a suborbital flight.