. >> all right, james oberg and all of our guests this hour, thank you so much. and for those of you at home, this is msnbc's rolling coverage of the crash of virgin galactic spaceship 2 that happened in california. tom costello and the entire nbc team are investigating. alex wagner leads the next hour of coverage. that starts right now. >>> we are following breaking news this afternoon. the county sheriff's office says one pilot was killed and a co-pilot injured when virgin galactic's spaceship 2 crashed over the mojave desert. at this time the cause of the crash is unknown. virgin galactic said it suffered an anomaly today. virgin galactic's partner scaled composites conducted a test flight of spaceship two earlier today. it suffered an anomaly resulting in the loss of our vehicle. our first concern is the status of the pilots. we will work closely with the relevant authorities to determine the cause of the accident and provide updates as soon as we are able to do so. nbc had agreed to air its first flight. we're awaiting more information at a mojave air and sp

on the phone now is james oberg, former nasa mission controller. thank for being with us. you can see right there a part of this equipment that -- you can see it's just landed there. james, you know, as we've been talking about, you're really taking a risk, pushing the envelope with this first mission to take people up to space. it's really the worst nightmare we are seeing play out right now. what are your initial thoughts? >> i was stanning there ten years ago when branson's spaceshipone made two of three flights. i was there at mojave and it was a great experience to be there. it was a great feeling you were at the new dawn of era of transportation. it's not just a matter of stunt flying, even though in the 1920s it was stunt flying that pushed -- that pushed airplanes to higher and higher levels of performance. this kind of project, and there are several others that are similar in nature out there, at least two or three we know of, is the sort of thing that millionaires pay for. but in the end the technology becomes available for all kinds of other transportation access

joining us now, james oberg, an nbc news space analyst and former missioner controller. and katie higgins, former national transportation safety board. thanks to both of you for speaking with us. >> yes, hello. >> kitty, you've been on the seen for many crashes. what are investigators going to be looking for? >> reverend al, at the beginning of the investigation, they'll look at everything that might have happened with this accident. they will look at the pilot's training and experience. they will look at the maintenance records of the vehicle. they will look at the fuel source. apparently there was a new fuel being used on this particular flight. they will rule everything in until they can system atically rule things out. so at the beginning, everything on the table and day by day, as they go through it, they will take things off the table. >> kenny, how is a rocket like this different to investigate than, say, a commercial plane? >> well, in some ways, it's the same. remember, the safety board has investigated, for example, the challenger accident. so they are familiar

and i believe we do now have nbc space analyst james oberg.status of the two pilots? >> reporter: rumors are still coming in. people are still hearing on the police radio and that hasn't been confirmed but the news isn't too encouraging about the pilots. >> what is "spaceship 2". >> reporter: it's to call passengers, space tourists, up into space 100 kilometers, about 65 miles up. they're paying $200,000 per ticket. it's several years behind schedule. they've been having engine problems in the past. some serious problems. this was a new kind of engine. the first time they were going to light this new engine in flight. and now this very, very tragic result. >> and i'm going to interrupt you quickly. we're getting california highway patrol, one pilot dead, one injured in this crash. there's a lot of discussion about this white knight 2 carrier aircraft which was flying along with the spaceship 2 rocket. is the white knight 2, is that a traditional aircraft? we're looking at pictures which i assume are white knight 2 and spaceship aboard it? >> n