Story highlights A lever on SpaceShipTwo was moved earlier than it should have 
 
 But the NTSB says the cause of the accident is still unclear 
 
 A memorial fund is set up for Michael Tyner Alsbury 
 
 The co-pilot "is alert and talking with his family and doctors" 
 
 A lock-unlock lever on the doomed Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo was moved earlier than it should have been, the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday night. 
 
 But the agency's acting chairman stressed it was unclear whether pilot error, mechanical problems or a host of other possibilities caused the spacecraft to disintegrate in the air. 
 
 "We are still a long way from finding a cause. We are months and months away," NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said. 
 
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 And despite a debris field spanning 5 miles, investigators have found almost all the parts of the spacecraft needed for the investigation, Hart said. 
 
 The accident killed co-pilot Michael Tyner Alsbury, 39. A memorial fund has been set up for him. 
 
 Co-pilot alert and talking 
 
 The surviving co-pilot is "alert" and speaking, the company that partnered with Virgin on the test flight program said Sunday. 
 
 "Peter Siebold, the director of flight operations at Scaled Composites, was piloting SpaceShipTwo. He is alert and talking with his family and doctors," the company said in a statement. 
 
 "We remain focused on supporting the families of the two pilots and all of our employees, as well as the agencies investigating the accident." 
 
 NTSB investigators have yet to interview Siebold. 
 
 "We have not because doctors did not recommend we do an interview at this stage," Hart said. 
 
 Inflight breakup? 
 
 SpaceShipTwo disintegrated Friday, just two minutes after the space plane separated from the jet-powered aircraft that carried it aloft. 
 
 At the time, it was about 45,000 feet above, and about 20 miles northeast, of Mojave, California. 
 
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 While the NTSB hasn't determined what broke the test aircraft apart, "when wreckage is dispersed like that, it indicates the likelihood of in-flight breakup," Hart said. 
 
 A team of 13 to 15 investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board will be on site in the Mojave Desert for about a week. But analyzing the data from the test aircraft will take much longer. 
 
 'We're going to learn' 
 
 Virgin Group founder Richard Branson said Sunday he didn't personally know Alsbury, but had the privilege of knowing Siebold. 
 
 "Mike was a dear friend and inspiring colleague to the many, many friends he left behind. My heart goes out to his parents, his wife and children, his sister and the rest of his family and friends," he said about Alsbury. 
 
 He wished Siebold a speedy recovery. 
 
 On Saturday, Branson said that the company is "determined to find out what went wrong." 
 
 When asked about the future of Virgin Galactic, Branson said the company's goal is still putting people safely into space. 
 
 "I think millions of people in the world would love one day to have the chance to go to space, and this is the start of a long program," he said. 
 
 Years of flight experience 
 
 The two test pilots had both had a great deal of flight experience. 
 
 Alsbury worked at Scaled Composites and logged more than 1,600 hours as test pilot and test engineer in Scaled aircraft. 
 
 Siebold had worked for Scaled Composites since 1996 and had 17 years and more than 2,000 hours of flight experience. 
 
 Both had degrees in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University. 
 
 As for the program itself, SpaceShipTwo had flown 55 times, 35 times on its own, Branson said in a statement. WhiteKnightTwo, the jet-powered "mothership" charged with transporting SpaceShipTwo to altitude, has flown 173 times, Branson said. 
 
 "We've always known that the road to space is extremely difficult -- and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history," Branson said. "Space is hard -- but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together." 
 
 Future of the program 
 
 For years, Virgin Galactic has planned to sell trips in which SpaceShipTwo would transport passengers about 62 miles above Earth -- the beginning of outer space -- and let them experience a few minutes of weightlessness before returning to the ground. 
 
 It's unclear what the failure of the space plane will mean for the program. Virgin Galactic planned to send paying customers on SpaceShipTwo as early as next year. 
 
 The company released a statement late Sunday. 
 
 "At Virgin Galactic, we are dedicated to opening the space frontier, while keeping safety as our 'North Star'. This has guided every decision we have made over the past decade, and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically untrue," it said. 
 
 "Now is not the time for speculation. Now is the time to focus on all those affected by this tragic accident and to work with the experts at the NTSB, to get to the bottom of what happened on that tragic day, and to learn from it so that we can move forward safely with this important mission." 
 
 Virgin has sold more than 700 tickets, each costing more than $250,000, for future flights. Several celebrities have already signed up, including Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher, Leonardo DiCaprio and Stephen Hawking. ||||| : For a report out today , the Wall Street Journal interviewed engineers and a government official connected to Virgin Galactic who said that founder Richard Branson's ambitious timelines for flying SpaceShipTwo went against the recommendations of the technical team. The project was plagued by more problems than outsiders knew, according to the Journal, which said: "Without a firm design, there was no way to reliably predict when the first passengers would make it to space for more than $200,000 a ticket.": The NTSB released a statement today saying that investigators had interviewed surviving SpaceShipTwo pilot Pete Siebold. Siebold confirmed that he had been thrown clear of SpaceShipTwo as it broke up at high altitude, and that he had managed to unbuckle himself from his seat before his parachute deployed automatically at lower altitude. He said he did not remember co-pilot Mike Alsbury moving the lever that unlocked the ship's feather system.The NTSB is now focusing its investigation of the crash on "the aerodynamic and inertial forces that acted on the vehicle" after SpaceShipTwo's rocket engine fired. It seems clear that it is those forces that ripped the craft apart after the feather deployed prematurely, spoiling the ship's optimal shape for rocketing through the atmosphere.We still don't know why Alsbury unlocked the feather too early in the flight. One possibility is that faulty cockpit displays were somehow to blame. The NTSB team "continues to review available data for the vehicle's systems (flight controls, displays, environmental control, etc.)," according to today's statement. "The group is also reviewing design data for the feather system components and the systems safety documentation." Virgin Galactics SpaceShipTwo dropped from its mothership at an altitude of 45,000 feet over Mojave, Calif. and fired its single hybrid rocket engine for its fourth-ever powered flight. A few seconds into the burn, according to an eyewitness account, the craft experienced what Mojave Air and Space Port manager Stu Witt would later call "an in-flight anomaly."Witt said at a press conference after the disaster that he didnt see an explosion and he didnt see anything abnormal in the rocket plume. He knew something was wrong only "when other things werent happening," he said. "It wasnt because something did happenit was what I was not hearing and not seeing. If there was a huge explosion, I didnt see it."The ship apparently dropped out of the sky in silence, with its engine off, and crashed into the desert some 25 miles north of Mojave.The two pilots on board were employees of Scaled Composites, the company that built SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. One of them managed to parachute to the ground. He was injured badly enough to require a helicopter evacuation to a nearby hospital.The other pilot apparently died on impact, according to Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood. He said in the press conference that he overflew the crash site shortly after the accident. "The aircraft is in several different pieces," he said. "We found one person who obviously was deceased immediately."This test flight was the first for a new kind of fuel a plastic similar to nylon. Previously, SpaceShipTwo had used a synthetic rubber fuel, one that had been giving giving engineers trouble for years as they tried to scale up the successful 3-seat SpaceShipOne prototype, which won the X Prize in 2004, to a much bigger vehicle using the same hybrid rocket design and fuel, and meant to carry tourists to suborbital space.Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey downplayed any role that the new fuel might have had in the crash. "We were flying a rocket motor today that had been thoroughly tested on the ground and had been through a qualification series, and of course we expected no anomalies with the motor today." He called the fuel a "small nuance to the rocket motor design."SpaceShipTwo was supposed to be the ship that commercialized spaceflight in a big way, carrying six paying passengers at a time for a few minutes of weightless flight and a view of the curvature of the Earth set against the backdrop of space. Virgin Group chief Richard Branson, who financed construction of the ship, has said he would personally inaugurate service to space within the next few months.The SpaceShipTwo that wrecked was a total loss. So, to recover from this severe setback will require building a new vehicle. Before that can happen, though, investigators will have to figure out exactly what went wrong. Mickey said that officials from the National Transportation Safety Board would arrive early Saturday morning to begin that job.Were left to wonder what impact the accident will have on the nascent commercial spaceflight industry, which Branson has been working hard to characterize as safe. Fridays crash is a stark reminder that spaceflight is an inherently risky endeavor.Witt encouraged everyone working in the industry to keep moving forward despite the pain of losing a member of what he said described as the very small test community. "My message to them is, stay the course," he said. "This business is worthy business.", Sunday, Nov. 2: The pilot who was killed in the SpaceShipTwo crash has been identified as Michael Alsbury, a 14-year veteran of Scaled Composites. He was the co-pilot of SpaceShipTwo for this test flight. Pilot Peter Siebold, who is Scaled Composites' director of flight operations (who also flew SpaceShipOne in 2004) managed to bail out and survived a parachute landing. He is undergoing treatment for his injuries. A statement from Scaled Composites released on Saturday said he was alert and able to talk to friends and his doctors.Richard Branson said in a brief press conference in Mojave on Saturday that he and Virgin Galactic would not "push on blindly" with the SpaceShipTwo program. "To do so would be an insult to all those affected by this tragedy." He said the program would continue only if, after finding out what went wrong, "we can overcome it." National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators arrived on the scene early Saturday morning and got to work examining the crash site and cataloging the data available, including video from cameras on the spaceship, the WhiteKnightTwo mothership, and a chase plane, as well as telemetry, and radar info. They have begun interviewing engineers and flight controllers.NTSB acting chairman Christopher Hart said in a press conference Saturday night that the crash debris covered an area of about five miles, which was consistent with an in-flight breakup. "When the debris field spans that large an area, then we know there was an in-flight separation," Hart said. "If it had crashed together then all the pieces would be close to each other. But that spread of the debris field tells us that it was an in-flight separation, and of course the question then is, why did that happen, so that's what we are exploring. That's what our investigators are examining." ||||| Just before SpaceShipTwo broke apart in midair Friday, the tail lifted prematurely after the co-pilot changed the aerodynamic controls, the leader of the National Transportation Safety Board said Sunday night. 
 
 Two levers were supposed to be pulled when the spacecraft reached Mach 1.4, allowing an action called "feathering" -- which lifts the tail to slow descent and create drag. Instead, a video in the cockpit and other data showed that one of the levers was unlocked early at Mach 1.0, NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart told reporters. 
 
 About two seconds later, the tail moved into the extended position, even though a second "feather" handle was not moved, Hart said. 
 
 "Pilot error is a possibility," Hart said. "We're a long way from finding cause." 
 
 The investigation into the fatal crash in the desert about 20 miles northeast of Mojave is to continue Monday, and he has said a final report could take as long as year. 
 
 NTSB investigators found the plane’s fuel tanks, oxidizer tanks and engine Sunday among the wreckage, Hart said. All those parts were intact, with no signs of having burned through or of being breached, he said. 
 
 Federal investigators are combing the Nevada desert to try and figure out what caused a Virgin Galactic space plane to explode during a test flight last week. Federal investigators are combing the Nevada desert to try and figure out what caused a Virgin Galactic space plane to explode during a test flight last week. SEE MORE VIDEOS 
 
 Also on Sunday, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive said the company was planning to finish work on a second rocket plane by year's end. 
 
 “The second spaceship is very advanced in its construction,” George Whitesides said. “We need to work closely with the NTSB … to work out as rapidly as we can what happened, and then to move forward. We’re hopeful we can make rapid progress.” 
 
 Friday's test flight of SpaceShipTwo was the first time it was to fly by firing a new rocket motor using a plastic-based fuel – leading to speculation that the engine may have been a factor in the crash. 
 
 Until May, SpaceShipTwo had used a different motor that burned a rubber-based fuel. 
 
 Whitesides said he couldn’t talk about the accident during the investigation. When asked if the company would continue testing the new engine on the ground, he said, “I think the short answer is ‘yes.’” 
 
 The engine had passed ground tests before Friday’s flight that satisfied engineers who determined it was “qualified” to be tested in flight. That process, he said, involved “a small number of firings in a row to make sure you get the same result.” 
 
 “We have qualified the engine that we were putting into flight tests,” he said. “I’m sure that we will continue that work.” 
 
 He added, “As we’ve always said, we expect to continue to improve all our systems as time goes on just like any manufacturer would.” 
 
 In a statement released Sunday, Virgin Galactic said "no one wants to know more than we do" what happened on Friday. 
 
 "We are dedicated to opening the space frontier, while keeping safety as our 'North Star,'" the statement said. "This has guided every decision we have made over the past decade, and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically untrue. ... Everything we do is to pursue the vision of accessible and democratized space – and to do it safely." 
 
 Whiteside said Virgin Galactic had spent $500 million so far in its quest to fly tourists into space. The company had insurance, he said, that would help cover the cost of Friday’s crash. 
 
 Test pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, died in the crash. His body was found near the fuselage of the main wreckage, authorities said. 
 
 Surviving pilot Peter Siebold, 43, suffered a shoulder injury and was "alert and talking with his family and doctors" on Saturday, according to Scaled Composites, the company that designed SpaceShipTwo. 
 
 Times staff writer Petersen reported from Mojave and Raab from Los Angeles. 
 
 
 
 Follow @MelodyPetersen and @raablauren on Twitter ||||| In an interview for ITV News, Mr Branson blasted Sunday newspapers for publishing articles discussing “exploding fuel tanks and engines” and publishing pictures of “enormous explosions”, when there was no evidence for an explosion occurring. 
 
 On Friday, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo broke up in-flight leading the aircraft to crash in California's Mojave Desert, killing 39-year-old co-pilot Michael Tyner Alsbury and seriously injuring 43-year-old pilot Peter Siebold. 
 
 Following the crash, Mr Branson said that he had been angry with a “few seasoned sceptical newspapers” that had got it “horribly wrong” in their theories on what had caused the spacecraft to come down. 
 
 He said: “I found it very uncomfortable over the weekend when so many self-proclaimed experts in the UK came out saying there had been an explosion.” 
 
 “We are very pleased that the National Transportation Safety Board has denied that.” 
 
 On Sunday night, Christopher Hart, Acting Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board spoke to the press about how the investigation into what caused the crash was progressing. 
 
 Video: Watch the full Branson interview below 
 
 During the press conference, he said that a team of 13 to 15 people were investigating the wreckage, but that as of yet there were still a lot of “unknowns” surrounding the crash. 
 
 Hart said that investigators would be gathering information over the next week, but finding out the definitive cause of the crash could take as much as 12 months. 
 
 In the interview with ITV, Richard Branson said that he was confident that the investigation would be concluded before that. 
 
 He said: “My initial estimate is that the investigation will take nothing like 12 months, the NTSB has given me a strong indication as to what they think caused the crash and I think they are going to be able to ascertain, but of course it is still for them to say, the exact cause of the crash.” 
 
 A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) team surveys a tail section from the crashed Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo near Cantil, California Despite the tragedy on Friday, Branson used the interview to reaffirm his intentions to continue Virgin’s development of their Galactic project. 
 
 He said: “We have a wonderful team who are keen to get working on the second spaceship, start work on the third spaceship and get everything back on track.” 
 
 Branson did admit that he would not be going into space in February as he had hoped and said that he was unsure exactly when this would happen. 
 
 He said: “I am not going to give dates, I have given dates in the past and not met them and I don’t want to give the sceptics about our programme any extra ammunition.”
– In its first investigation of a manned space launch, the National Transportation Safety Board says pilot error may have caused the deadly crash of SpaceShipTwo on Friday. The agency's acting chairman told reporters last night that a lever on the doomed spacecraft was moved to the unlock position sooner than it should have been, CNN reports. He explained that the experimental spacecraft disintegrated seconds after a "feathering" system designed to slow descent was deployed at the wrong speed, but he stressed that finding the cause of the crash will take months and that issues including possible mechanical and design failures or "pressure to continue testing" are also being looked at, the AP reports. One test pilot was killed in the crash. The other suffered a shoulder injury, and the company that designed the craft for Virgin Galactic says he is now "alert and talking with his family and doctors," reports the Los Angeles Times. The space tourism firm has been accused of excessive risk-taking, but its chief executive tells the Financial Times that those claims are a difference of professional opinion and that the firm listens carefully to the "several hundred engineers that we have on staff." He says a second spaceship under construction "is getting close to readiness" and could be ready to fly by the time the NTSB probe is complete.