“We're hoping for a Halloween treat,” Virgin Galactic posted on Twitter earlier this morning. The British spacecraft company thought their test flight would be a great way to start off the day. But hours later, Virgin Galactic officials and Kern County emergency officials found themselves at a press conference they hoped would never happen. 

“Space is hard. Today was a tough day,” George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, solemnly told reporters after an experimental Virgin Galactic spacecraft crashed in the Mojave Desert shortly after 10 a.m. on Friday. 

The craft, SpaceShipTwo, took off from Mojave Air and Space Port attached to its parent craft, White Knight Two, at around 9:20 a.m. earlier this morning. After detaching from its “mothership” and igniting its rocket engine at 10:10 a.m., SpaceShipTwo suffered an “inflight anomaly” at 10:12.  Moments later, the more than $400 million craft was scattered in pieces across the desert, around 25 miles north of the runway it had taken off from.

This was the spacecraft’s fourth powered test flight since January. During the test, Stuart Witt, CEO at Mojave Air and Space Port, said he “detected nothing that appeared abnormal.”

READ MORE: Experimental Spacecraft Crashes In Mojave Desert

Kevin Mickey, president at Scaled Composites confirmed that two test pilots from Scaled Composites, flew the aircraft today, which is designed to hold six additional passengers. One was pronounced dead at the scene and the other suffered “major injuries” and is currently receiving treatment at Antelope Valley Hospital. 

The past week was a disastrous one for the private aerospace community. On Tuesday, an Orbital Sciences Antares rocket headed for the International Space Station exploded a few seconds after takeoff, creating a fireball that could be seen for miles near the Virginia coast.

Despite these setbacks, Witt encouraged aerospace students and other interested in the field to continue following their passions, comparing it to Ferdinand Magellan’s pioneering journey around the world. 

“Stay the course, this business is worthy business,” he said.  “To the new people involved with this, get involved, be inquisitive, challenge, don't be afraid to ask the tough questions. We're doing this for you, and for your generation. It's a cause far greater than any one of us singularly.

George Whitesides echoed similar statements.

“The future rests in many ways on hard, hard days like this but we believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles as well as the folks working so hard on this to understand this and move forward.” 

Richard Brandon, founder of Virgin Group, is en route to the location and will arrive Saturday morning. National Transportation and Safety Board also sent out a “go-team” to investigate the incident.