 LOS ANGELES (AP) — Virgin Galactic's experimental spaceship broke apart in flight over California's Mojave Desert after a device to slow the craft's descent prematurely deployed, federal investigators said Sunday. Sir Richard Branson says at the Mojave Air and Space Port 
 
 ©AFP Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, and Burt Rutan, then chief executive of Scaled Composites, unveil designs for SpaceshipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo in January 2008 
 
 ©EPA SpaceShipTwo glides toward Earth on its first test flight in October 2010 
 
 ©Getty SpaceShipTwo completes its successful first glide flight at Mojave in California in October 2010 
 
 ©PA Sir Richard Branson with his Virgin Galactic spacecraft at the Farnborough International Airshow in the UK in July 2012 
 
 ©Getty Pilots of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, Clint Nichols, Mike Alsbury, Brian Maisler, Mark Stuckey and Dave McKay, in April 2013. Image taken from video footage by KABC-TV Los Angeles 
 
 ©Reuters Debris of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo 
 
 ©AP George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, speaks at a news conference after the crash 
 
 ©AFP Members of the National Transportation Safety Board arrive at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California on November 1 
 
 ©AFP Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, tells reporters investigators were entering unknown territory Previous image Next image 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 The head of Virgin Galactic, whose test spacecraft suffered a fatal crash on Friday, has rejected accusations that the group ignored warnings about its novel rocket propulsion system and said that it could have a new spacecraft ready to fly next year. The investigation is months from being completed and pilot error, mechanical failure, the design and whether there was pressure to continue testing are among many things being looked at, Hart said.  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. Initial speculation was that an explosion occurred but Hart said the fuel and oxidizer tanks and rocket engine were found and showed no sign of being burned or breached. Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides issued a statement Sunday to tamp down conjecture about the cause of the crash. 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. "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." However, it also emerged on Saturday evening that the Virgin Galactic spacecraft that broke apart in the sky above the Mojave desert on Friday, killing one pilot and severely injuring the other, was using a new method of propulsion that was more complex than had been widely believed, and which had only been fully tested a handful of times on the ground.
– 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.