The landing gear on Sir Richard Branson's private spaceship carrier plane, WhiteKnightTwo, collapsed on the runway in Mojave, California, .
The plane was designed by Scaled Composites, a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, and designed to carry Branson's spaceship, , to an altitude of about 45,000 feet. From there, SpaceShipTwo would fire its rocket engines, punch through the atmosphere, allow its six passengers to experience the weightlessness of space, then land on a runway–all for $200,000 a seat. (See video above.)
Branson's Virgin Group hopes to begin commercial space flights in late 2011 to 2012.
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–Erin Beresini