MOJAVE, calif. — There were no ejection seats and no easy ways out of SpaceShipTwo if disaster struck.
As the doomed flight rocketed past the speed of sound about eight miles up and then shattered seconds later, the odds of survival were slim.
Remarkably, as sections of the cockpit, fuselage, a wing and motor rained down over the Mojave Desert and pieces of the lightweight craft tiny enough to travel 35 miles were picked up by the winds, a parachute was seen in the sky.
Pilot Peter Siebold was alive and drifting to safety.
“It’s no minor miracle that he did survive and survive in relatively good shape,” said Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides this week.
How Siebold, 43, survived the fall from extreme altitude a week ago while co-pilot Mike Alsbury, 39, died is not yet clear.
Initial findings show the Virgin Galactic plane designed to take tourists for $250,000 joyrides beyond the edge of Earth’s atmosphere, broke apart after the craft’s re-entry braking system prematurely activated during its rocket blast, said Christopher Hart, acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board.
