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 ||||| 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. 
 
 In this video grabbed image, billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, at podium, pauses during a news conference before he saluted the bravery of test pilots, and vowed to find out what caused... (Associated Press) 
 
 In this undated photo released Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, by Scaled Composites, shows Michael Alsbury, who was killed while co-piloting the test flight of Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo on Friday, Oct. 31,... (Associated Press) 
 
 Law enforcement officers keep watch on the wreckage near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The explosion... (Associated Press) 
 
 A tank, part of wreckage lies near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The explosion killed a pilot aboard... (Associated Press) 
 
 Law enforcement officials take a closer look at the wreckage near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 Law enforcement officers take a closer look at the wreckage near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The... (Associated Press) 
 
 A journalist makes a video of the wreckage near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The explosion killed... (Associated Press) 
 
 National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Christopher Hart said that while no cause for Friday's crash of SpaceShipTwo has been determined, investigators found the "feathering" system — which rotates the tail to create drag — was activated before the craft reached the appropriate speed. 
 
 The system requires a two-step process to deploy. The co-pilot unlocked the system but Hart said the second step occurred "without being commanded." 
 
 "What we know is that after it was unlocked, the feathers moved into the deploy position and two seconds later we saw disintegration," Hart said. 
 
 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. 
 
 "We are not edging toward anything, we're not ruling anything out," Hart said. "We are looking at all these issues to determine the root cause of this accident." 
 
 The co-pilot Michael Alsbury, 39, was killed. Peter Siebold, 43, who piloted the mission, parachuted to the ground and is receiving treatments at a hospital for serious injuries. 
 
 Virgin Galactic — owned by billion Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — plans to fly passengers to altitudes more than 62 miles above Earth. The company sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000. 
 
 Branson had hoped to begin flights next year but said Saturday that the project won't resume until the cause of the accident is determined and the problems fixed. 
 
 Hart said a review of footage from a camera mounted to the ceiling of the cockpit shows the co-pilot moving the feathering lever to the unlock position. 
 
 The feathering is a feature unique to the craft to help it slow as it re-enters the atmosphere. After being unlocked, a lever must be pulled to rotate the tail section toward a nearly vertical position to act as a rudder. After decelerating, the pilots reconfigure the tail section to its normal position so the craft can glide to Earth. 
 
 Hart said the feathers activated at Mach 1.0, the speed of sound or 760 mph. They shouldn't have deployed until the craft had at least reached a speed of Mach 1.4, or more than 1,000 mph. 
 
 SpaceShipTwo tore apart Friday about 11 seconds after it detached from the underside of its jet-powered mother ship and fired its rocket engine for the test flight. 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. 
 
 "Now is not the time for speculation," he said. "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." 
 
 SpaceShipTwo has been under development for years and, like all space projects, has suffered setbacks. In 2007, an explosion killed three people on the ground and critically injured three others during a ground test in the development of a rocket engine. 
 
 Prior to Hart's announcement, Geoff Daly, an engineer who worked on the space shuttle, renewed criticism of Virgin Galactic's use of nitrous oxide to power the ship. 
 
 The nitrous oxide is used with fuel to provide propulsion. Engineers had recently changed the fuel system, switching from a rubber-based fuel to one that used plastics. The new fuel had been tested on the ground but not in flight until Friday. 
 
 Daly was co-author of a critical report on the 2007 incident at Scaled Composites, the Northrop Grumman-owned designer of SpaceShipTwo. The report was critical of Virgin's claims that nitrous oxide was safe to use in engines for passenger flight, and it complained that the public was never given a full accounting of what happened. 
 
 In a June 2013 letter, Daly asked the FAA to put a hold on an experimental flight permit for SpaceShipTwo to ensure the safety of personnel on the ground and in the spacecraft. 
 
 The FAA said it would look into his complaint, according to memos posted online, but Daly said no flights of SpaceShipTwo were halted. 
 
 A report by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said the 2007 blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide. The engine was not firing during the test at the Mojave Air and Space Port. 
 
 The loss of SpaceShipTwo was the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff in Virginia. ||||| 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. ||||| ©AFP ‘We owe it to our test pilots to find out exactly what went wrong,�? 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. Mike Alsbury was reportedly killed in the Virgin SpaceShipTwo crash 
 
 ©Reuters Moments away from disaster, SpaceShipTwo flies above the Mojave Desert after launching from the carrier aircraft on October 31 
 
 ©Reuters The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket explodes in mid-air 
 
 ©AP Rescue crew rushes a person to a helicopter near the crash scene. 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. 
 
 George Whitesides, who was speaking in an interview in Mojave late on Saturday, said that periodic claims from others in the space industry that Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism company was running high risks marked a difference of professional opinion rather than valid warnings. 
 
 “In the space community you will be able to find people who have favourite technologies of different types. One group will say their type of technology is better than another,�? he said. “We pay a lot of attention to the several hundred engineers that we have on staff, and other expert consultants we’ve talked with about our technologies.�? 
 
 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. 
 
 The National Transportation Protection Board, which began an investigation at the site early in the day, said by the evening that it had recovered three different types of fuel tank from wreckage strewn over five and a half miles of desert floor. 
 
 The presence of three types of fuel, which were mixed in the vehicle’s engine before being ignited, showed that the propulsion method was much more complex than an earlier one Virgin Galactic abandoned several months ago after years of experimentation, according to two rocket experts, one of whom works for a company using a different type of technology. The switch was made to try to push the spacecraft closer to the 100km altitude that is widely considered to represent the edge of space. 
 
 Groups that have warned publicly about Virgin Galactic’s propulsion systems over the years include IAASS, an organisation representing a number of space safety experts. Mr Whitesides said he was not aware of any formal warnings that the organisation had made to the company. 
 
 Friday’s flight was the first to use the new fuel system, which the Virgin Galactic chief executive acknowledged had been put through a full test cycle on the ground only a handful of times. However, he said: “We fired the motor many more times than that, but we have put that motor through a rigorous ground development programme. The results of those tests were positive.�? 
 
 US government investigators said late on Saturday that it was too early to reach any conclusions about the cause of the crash or how long the Virgin Galactic programme would be closed down. A full report could take a year, said Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the NTSB. 
 
 Even if it ultimately clears Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo of any major flaws, the length of the NTSB investigation looks set to complicate further Sir Richard’s hopes of getting back to development of the project, which is already years behind schedule. 
 
 A second spacecraft under construction for the last three years in New Mexico is “65 per cent complete�?, Mr Whitesides said, adding that it could be ready to fly next year, once the cause of last week’s accident has been resolved. “The second spaceship is getting close to readiness,�? he said.
– 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.