A passenger Virgin Galactic spacecraft crashed after an explosion during a test flight over the Mojave desert late Friday, killing one of the pilots, seriously injuring another and leaving debris scattered over a wide area. The spaceship being developed by Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic company was flying a manned test when it experienced what the company described as "a serious anomaly". It came days after another private space company, Orbital Sciences Corp, lost a rocket in an explosion moments after liftoff in Virginia. Witnesses reported the spacecraft broke apart soon after it was detached from the launch plane that carries it to 45,000ft. Rescuers found one of the pilots dead on the ground. The other, who appeared to have deployed an emergency parachute, was airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries.