learned from virgin galactic which is sir richard branson's company in california. huge excitement over what could be this flight. 62 miles out to suborbital orbit just to the edge if they can pay for that ticket to get onboard this spacecraft, they could experience the awe that is space. weightlessness. you can see what that really is like and so now we are experiencing a tragedy which in the wake of the rocket that exploded six seconds after takeoff a couple days ago is certainly tough to swallow for anyone who loves space. i have a former washington post reporter and author who has followed the development of this particular program. this virgin galactic program. when you look at these pictures here, pieces of presumably this space ship 2 here in the desert and we now have the news that at least one of the pilots has died. it's tough news to swallow. >> actually, yes, brooke. i'm quite heartbroken. i knew both of these pilots very, very well. they were both engaged with the predecessor program to the virgin galactic program and that was the space ship 1 program which was funded by mi

conversations with richard branson about this, their goal was to have as many as four or five or six of these vehicles in circulation, cycling through, taking paying passengers up every single day or six days a week, out of their facility in new mexico. people are putting down somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000 for a ride. i think that at this point this is a very big setback, of course, for virgin galactic and for any attempt to put paying attentions on a vehicle into space. i don't know what it's -- we have to see what the investigation reveals. you know, virgin galactic was hopeful that as early as late 2015 they might be able to put paying attentions on one of these vehicles headed for low earth orbit or low orbit, suborbit. i think at this point that is almost certainly not going to happen. and you've got to wonder whether this entire idea may be called into question. here's why. it is not a reflection in in way on the individuals on the spaceship today. we don't want to say that. if you talk to anybody involved in this business, you know, we saw it two days ago with

companies that have been working on this program. richard branson is on his way, flying to mojave, and we expect he will be here by tomorrow morning. space is hard. and today was a tough day. we are going to be supporting the investigation as we go through what happened today, and we are going to get through it. ways,ture rests, in many on hard days like this. to thebelieve we owe it folks who were flying these vehicles, as well as the folks who have been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward, which is what we will do. thank you. mindnts, if you wouldn't joining me. supervisors, i am sorry. i see you in the room. nice to see you. now, i would like to take some questions from the press corps. , i willould not mind give you some time. stand up, state your name, so we know who we are talking to and your affiliation. i understand on this particular test flight, this ship was using reformulated fuel and may be engine had been tweaked. engine had been tweaked. >> kevin, you care to take that question? we were flying a rocket motor to date that had been thoroughly teste

planned for years to sell these trips in which this space ship 2 will take passengers. richard branson included. 62 miles above earth. the beginning of outer space and allow them to experience those few minutes of weightlessness and that sense of awe that far out before returning back to ground. so friday's test as this is based in california, that's where this happened. this is -- keep in mind what we saw earlier in the week. not connected whatsoever but as far as space is concerned, this is incident number two in a single week. a rocket exploded six seconds after liftoff. all right. i have one of our aviation analysts on the phone with me. what the heck does an inflight anomaly mean? >> we were just discussing that with producers. it could be almost anything. it could be a computer glitch. it could be some sort of trajectory issue. flight control issue. anomaly is a vague and general term for something that normally doesn't happen and can't really be explained. it's not something we normally associate that with computer based issues on the airplane. >> what more do we know about the test flig

video. >> i can't national they won't be. richard branson is transparent in general. he has some 400 different companies that he is involved in, and he is a visionary, and i actually interviewed him in this process and asked him why space, how do you come um with the idea -- i'm going to start taking spaceships to space. and she says, why not? and that's what -- >> they'd done a lot of these tests. i don't know how many but more than a handful. they have made this trip over and over again, and i know they test every single thing about the ship before they go -- before this rocket was launched today, before it wag -- was ignited, it was tested. >> these aren't people who have worked just in the commercial airline industry. these are incredible engineers and peop0!;( who worked for nas, and many of them under the space shuttle program. the person who is running this program right now there is a guy who ran the last, i believe, 17 space shuttle missions. people who worked for nasa who are incredibly comfortable and incredibly excited about this industry. >> i'm somewhat surprised there'

, not too long ago, let's say richard branson was looking at the glass half full. this is my conversation with him less than a month ago. >> i hear you're offering a private way for average folks like me and others to do it and quite few sign up where do we stan on this. >> taken longer than i thought. i suspect or year 0 so ago i thought we would be in space by now. but i do believe that by the end of this year we are to offer test flights into space with this craft will have happened, and i do believe by round about march, april next year, myself and my son will be going up. >> really. you're. >> the sort of guinea pig. >> you pay how much. >> the initial price is $250,000. if you want to go in a russian spaceship it's 50 million. >> are you up and down. >> the initial flights are short, and they will be the pioneering flights which will then lead on to point-to-point air travel. so we want to take people orbitally around the record -- around the world. and then we have plans to put arrives satellites in -- arrays of satellites in space. the best bit of news is that our roc

there appears to have been a fatality. >> richard branson, obviously the owner of virgin galactic, he recently told cnn that he believed virgin galactic was in the final stages of getting approval from the faa for its space tourism program. how much do you think that that is still a possibility? it seems like that would be a nonstarter at this point, at least in the short to immediate future. >> well, it's not that they would never get approval. that process is going to be pushed back. there will be a full accident investigation to determine the root cause of the accident, find the lessons -- apply the lessons learned. and so the certification process will be pushed down the road. there's no question about that. but i'm confident that if they stay with it, they will get certification and it will be a successful program. but obviously after a major incident like this, there's going to be a delay. >> leroy, do you think there's enough oversight of the commercial space ventures that we're seeing, attempts by private industry to put people into space? we've seen two horrific incidents

richard branson's virgin galactic tourism operator crashed during a test flight in california mojave desert killing the copilot and injuring the pilot. an faa spokesperson says ground control lost contact just after 10:00 a.m. local time. following release from the white knight two jet that carried it aloft. in the last hour, virgin galactic ceo said richard branson was on his way to the crash site and is expected to arrive tomorrow morning. for more, i want to get to boeing assistant professor .f aeronautics and only worry child. also with us editor-at-large cory johnson -- and leroy chow. lots of information and speculation. of speculation about what happened here. what do you think went wrong? what was goingke on from things i heard, it was a new powered flight with a new rocket fuel. i don't know if it's related at all. you have to wait and see what the review turns up. there are so many things in these complex systems that can go wrong. these are some of the very best engineers and test pilots in the world. even then, things can happen unpredictably. my guess is it might

discover the anomaly. virgin boss richard branson tweeted he's also flying to california. the vehicle that crashed today evolved from this, spaceship 1 which won the ansari x price for becoming the first privately owned manned spacecraft to fly into space. many have paid $250,000 deposits to fly on spacecraft 2, carried by virgin's white knight 2 care crer jet and then released. the subor bitter will carry it to 62 miles or 100 kilometers above earth. giving are travelers a brief view. on tuesday, an unmanned space craforspacecraft explode after g launched from virginia. what do you know about the investigation into the crash? >> the investigation will not get underway until sometime late tomorrow morning. we know the area has been secured, we know there is debris over a wide area. according to those officials who have been at the spacecraft, the number of pieces it was at 45,000 feet when this happened, with this explosion occurred after they tried to turn on the rocket engine. so the ntsb will be the lead investigation agency, assisted by faa, i wouldn't be surprised if nasa

richard branson organization geared to pilots were aboard that spaceship. the status is unknown geared virgin galactic saying that the partner conducted a powered test flight for this particular aircraft earlier today. they say that their first concern is the safety of the pilots. it is unknown at this time. they are working closely with authorities. they said that the status is unknown at this time. they continue to monitor your the situation for you. this is three days after the orbital science spacecraft suffered a very high profile explosion. >> two pilots aboard. melissa: you mentioned what happened on tuesday. this will raise a lot of talk. >> yes. absolutely. nassau for a while was out of the space shuttle game. now you have more privatization of the industry. we are seeing more and more. again, we do not know exactly what happened. melissa: i am looking at the video right now. we know that the fire department is responding. >> we do not know. we know that there was a virgin logo that you can see there. no confirmed information at this time. we do know that virgin galactic wants

galactic founder richard branson expressed earlier this year. >> 200 of the best engineers and technicians building them. now we're beginning the final stages of test flights in-flight. by the end of this year, we will have actually gone into space. >> reporter: instead, it is another blow to the idea of privatized space travel. it comes only days after a spectacular launchpad explosion in virginia, a blast that involved a spacecraft once again manufactured by a private company. huge risks but 800 people have already put down deposits or paid to ride on this plane. >> let's go to mojave, california, right now. a news conference on what happened has just started. >> the president of scaled composites, just briefly, our day began about 2:00 this morning with the evolution of a spaceshiptwo white knight two power flight 4 was the name of this particular test. takeoff occurred at 9:20 this morning. my team and i were present for the entire evolution and release of spaceshiptwo occurred at approximately 10:10 a.m. at approximately 10:12, we became aware of an in-flight anomaly and implemented o

, richard branson, who runs virgin galactic, has been trying to get this up there, and his plan is to be the first person on it. he has so much faith in this that he is going to be the first person into space as a citizen. it's scary for the future of private space industry. with the space shuttle going out of business now this is all going into the private companies and the private sectors. there's a lot of excitement around that. this one as the ship that should be safe to go into space for people like you and me gretchen at a pretty hefty price thaiing, but that would become lower. something like this, if there is a problem, certainly a big blow to that. >> yeah. no doubts rick. of course you mentioned the froout future of private space industry. there was a lot of hopes and a lot of dreams that this was going to work. people wereotology pay millions of dollars for the opportunity, and now reports that there has been an unconfirmed crash as we're learning at new video just coming into fox, as can you see, what appears to be a wing here now of the space galactic operation. you heard

starting off with breaking news tonight. billionaire richard branson virgin galactic spaceship ii, that rocket plane exploded and crashed earlier today. those are the pictures right now. plane was designed for commercial space travel was on a test flight in california when the accident occurred. we're awaiting a news conference where we'll learn more information. here with more on this space.com managing director, and we have tom jones, veteran of space shuttle program and planetary scientist. welcome to you both. i want to update folks on a couple headlines we've gotten. two people aboard the plane, a pilot, copilot, one of them is dead tonight. that is according to the county sheriff's department, did not survive the crash. ntsb announcing they will launch a go team to investigate the accident. that came out moments ago. investigation into the crash. you're seeing pictures on the screen right now. lots of news coming out on this. tariq, i quill start with you, you're well-known covering space issues. what do you make of what is going on tonight? what do you expect out of this pr

. we don't know what, of course. no official comment from richard branson yet. as you might expect, this is a huge setback to virgin galactic and a terrible blow to them to see their colleagues, their friends, whether they are virgin galactic employees or employees of the company that makes this vehicle for virgin galactic. i've been there and these companies work hand in glove and they are quite literally sharing buildings and are next door to each other. to have this happen to your employees or your close friends is a huge setback and a huge blow. we wish them well. i met many of them myself. as for where the investigation will go, as you might expect, they will get some stance from the federal government to try and investigate the cause of this accident. this was a test vehicle using a new engine and a new fuel mixture. they had the last test run that they did back in january they're trying to improve upon. and so today's test flight was trying to put those new test engines and fluids to the test. one interesting point here, and that is that when i was out there at the engine te

pilot. rebecca? leon, billionaire richard branson created virgin galactic to try and lead the way tourism.cial space keep in mind, already this week, the private sector space majorry suffered a setback with the explosion in virginia of the rocket headed to station.national space now those doubts about commercial space flights are tragic loss ofhe life today. let's take a look at the wreckage. faa officials say that the catastrophe happened just after spacecraft had separated from the launch vehicle. the two pilots on board plummeted 50,000 feet to the floor of california's mojave desert. did miraculously survive the fall, with serious injuries. quickly air-lifted to an area hospital. but the second pilot was killed on impact. witnesses say his body was found, still strapped into his pilot seat. the crash occurred just after 10 a.m. pacific time. this was intended to be the flight of virgin galactic. two.million spaceship i interviewed virgin galactic ceo, richard branson, this past venture.t his business he called this project his passion and he planned to take his own family on t

the crash on site. richard branson, the billionaire founder of the virgin group tweeted his plans to fly to mojave immediately to be with the teams. branson hoped to ride the first commercial flight on virgin galactic's planned space program. the company's founder wasn't the only one looking for a ride into space. more than 700 customers have paid as much as $250,000 for a ticket to suborbital space. joining me tonight on the phone is tom bunn, retired airline captain. also with us this evening, anthony roman who is the ceo and founder of ac roman and associates. thanks for your time tonight. in the experimental aircraft community, unfortunately these things happen. this is part of the business. tom bunn, from what you've been able to gather from what is unfolded today, what's your first impressions of this? >> well, my impression is that this is a pretty crazy thing to do. and i know people expect they sign up for a ticket to something branson puts together as if it's like buying a ticket on one of his airlines. this is not the same thing at all. you know, we used to -- i'm also a t

early 2015. richard branson telling the "today" show in september that he still planned to be on the first commercial flights out of new mexico. she said earlyish. >> i want to let you know we have reached out to the owner of scaled composite. we reached out to them. they have no comment at this time. perhaps we will get back when they have more information. >> scaled composites is run by r legendary group of brothers. they hold numerous records. they are legendary in the community. now let's hope for the best for the pilots. richard branson we wait to hear from him because not only does he back this but he planned to be on the first commercial trip in early 2015. >> i understand more than 700 customers paid as much as $250,000 to ride on that rocket plane. you eluded to this moments ago and it has been a terrible week as far as space travel is concerned. >> i think that somebody tweeted this earlier this week and i thought it was poignant. space is hard. it is really hard. it is dangerous and i believe we do have live video from the scene. i don't know what we are looking at but let

richard branson holding court, a joyful thing talking about space ship two and after he said these pilots were his heroes and they were very experienced and he swallowed extremely hard and said we would all march up to the mouth of hell with each other and we'd be have happy about it. and again just a sad and somber mood inside where they are trying to figure out what happened to space ship two. >> a tough day for them personally. paul in the mohave desert, thank you. >>> and virgin galactic is considered the best hope in private space exploration. in fact prior to today's tragedy, they were hoping to start flights in months. dan simon is "outfront" with this story. >> reporter: for $250,000 a ride, this is the vehicle designed to take passengers to space. the virgin galactic spaceship two is a sub orbital vehicle where you can get an experience of weightlessness and a glorious view of the earth. it began operating in 2050 and within three years they had $30 million in deposits. >> what would you like to see happen to virgin gal actick in the future? >> we have plenty of dreams. ou

for the private space community? richard branson and virgin galactic customer >> the real question of whether something is just another commercial space light or private is who is the customer? in this case, the u.s. government was the main customer, so stop by the space flight, it is commercial. by thee paid for government. italy won on your list really trying to do something by the is richard branson. he's trying to change the customer from dana guston -- remain the government to being an individual. one beingas not flown passenger yet, but he's thing". whether he's got the right share of the market and a viable business model remains to be seen, but he's feeling one who's brave enough to truly bank his business on private spaceflight. trying tois working, use government contracts to fund the research to come up with technology that might someday lead to private spaceflight. it is a pretty interesting time in history to see how this is going and we will learn a lot from the accident that happened yesterday. >> we will follow the investigation as it plays out. ciao,hadfield and le

galactic is owned by richard branson who are has already sold more than 700 tickets to prospective space tourists willing to spend $250,000 for four minutes floating in suborbit. among the celebrities who have already booked a ride, lady gaga, tom hanks and katy perry. >> i wanted to go to space, so, you know. but nasa wasn't building spaceships for ordinary people to go to space. so i came up with the name virgin galactic airways. >> reporter: tonight, richard branson is on his way to mojave. and virgin galactic's plans for space tourism are very much in question. nbc news has an agreement to document virgin galactic's inaugural flight with paying passengers. this is of course the second major blow to the commercial space industry this week. just three days ago an orbital sciences rocket exploded on liftoff on a re-supply mission to the space station. thankfully no one was killed, but it was a $200 million loss for that company, lester. >> tom, in these two accidents a reminder there's a change in balance. we're seeing more commercial space flight operations along with government-

the ground, or whether it's richard branson who said contain disasters, i think her question shows she's exactly on the right path. you have to dream big but execute small. it's about little steps and it's not about going all in or getting yourself so anxious that you're going to bankrupt your family. she's on the right path. >> we hear these stories about people taking out all of these loans, from friend and family and risk it all. do you believe that's not the right path? >> i'm speechless. i'm absolutely in agreement with her. what people need to realize is that entrepreneurship is a marathon. it's not a sprint. some people think you get the money, you launch, you ship, you go public, you cash out, and it's this instant burst of activity. and that's a very unusual case. it seldom happens that way. mostly it's a long, long marathon. it's a 26-mile thing. it's not a 100-yard dash. >> we saw that happen also in the recession and all of these companies were doing okay that had no cash. >> exactly. but here's the thing about money even at the beginning. everyone thinks it takes a lot

was inevitably going to lead to a test flight richard branson was supposed to take some time this year. he was reasonably certain this was going to be a success, and we're seeing from virgin that the test flight -- >> let's give it over to liz claman, it's 3:00. >> we begin with the breaking news, now confirmed fatal crash of virgin galactic spaceship tested by sir richard branson's aerospace company. what you're looking at is the floor of the mojave desert, the test flight craft experienced a, quote, anomaly and the california highway patrol got a report of the crash. earlier we had a shot of the piece of the part of the fuselage and it did indeed have the logo virgin galactic were on it. two pilots, one fatality, one fatality has been confirmed and one other, quote, major injury. we need to tell you that this company, virgin galactic was promising and is promises still zero gravity flights that would take people up for the trip of a lifetime. a real experience. right there in the center, if they were able to zoom in. but we don't control this camera, it's channel 7 kabc in los a

when it exploded. the company said it suffered, a, quote, serious anomaly. richard branson tweeted that he's flying to mojave following crash of spaceship to be with the team. the national transportation safety board is sending a team to be on the ground in the morning. moments ago, virgin glal actic ceo addressed the tragedy. >> our primary thoughts at this moment are with the crew and family. space is hard and today was a tough day. we are going to be supporting the investigation as we figure out what happened today. and we're going to get through it. >> so where does this investigation go from here? 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 experie

already traveling at. a lot of concern there as you might expect. this is richard branson's program, as you know. richard branson brought in -- or, rather, assumed the entire project after we saw them win the "x" prize. they won the "x" prize with this vehicle. the whole notion they could bring people into suborbit, richard branson brought it, saw a commercial opportunity, that's why we've had test flights for the better part of a year and a half or so. >> thank you. i want to bring in anthony roman, commercial pilot. let's pick up on the point tom made. could someone in theory survive a parachute jump from the altitude at which this separation would have taken place? do we have tony? >> can you ask that question again? >> tom costello asked an interesting question whether a parachute jump in suborbit where this plane was flying is survivable? >> i highly doubt it. in suborbit you're approximately 70,000, 75,000 feet up. this particular spacecraft is known to re-enter the earth as atmosphere by folding itself in half and coming down in a falling leaf formation. as opposed to having any

of ship two from white night two. they got strange readings right now richard branson is on his way over from europe. is he is expected to arrive first thing in the morning. we also understand the ntsb will have an investigation team arriving around 7:30. and they will go to the site some 25 miles from where we stand apparently debris strewn over several miles and actually quite a difficult site to access considering how many different pieces of the wreckage are actually spread so far, greta. >> dominic, so many people had put down deposits to be part of this program. some famous people, not so famous people. where does this program go from here? is it way too soon to ask that question? >> yeah, that's a really big question there. ang lee a jolie the actress was one of them. steve hawkins the scientist. richard branson himself was going to be one of the first people to be a commercial customer actually on the debut commercial flight it was supposed to take place in march or possibly as early as february next year. we do know that virgin galactic is in the middle of building a second

. now, this is a venture of british billionaire richard branson. he tweeted thank youing everyone for messages of support and said he was flying immediately to the mojave. his goal is to fly to near space. the craft is designed to hold six passengers and a crew of two. he was hoping to be the first on the first flight. more than 700 people have signed up to go on the flight. we want to mention that this flight today was with a new fuel mix in this rocket engine. it had not been flown before with this fuel mix but we understand that it had been extensively tested on the ground. obviously that's one of the things investigators will be looking at. and this comes just three days after another accident. it was a commercial space transport taking off from a nasa site in virginia bound for the international space station carrying a pay load for the space station. it blew up just after takeoff on that launch pad so this week underscores what we know too well, that space is a very, very risky business. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> it's designed to take you edge of outer space and they w

company founded by british billionaire sir richard branson would not say what happened other than it was working with authorities to determine the cause of what it says was an accident. current county fire department reported it was heading to a location in the mohave desert. california highway patrol officer said the agency was responding to a report of a crash. we will have more after the break. "bottom line" continues in just a moment. ♪ >> let us get back to that breaking news we have been following about that virgin galactic spaceship tourism rocket. california authorities saying there is one fatality and one major injury. cory johnson is in san francisco. cory, i know you are intimately familiar with this process here. what can you tell us? virgin galactic telling us information, saying during the test there was a serious anomaly resulting in the loss of spaceshiptwo. let me explain to you how this thing works. is a product invented by a company called scales composite am an inventor and aerospace pioneer backed by paul allen of microsoft, among others. rather than take off f

joint venture between sir richard branson and imin aed aerospace engineer burt rutan called scaled composites now owned by publicly traded north tlup grumened. they're frying to the scene and put that out on a tweet earlier today. melissa, back to you. >> thank you, michelle caruso-cabrera. >>> and up for the first time in three days, earlier the company stock dropped on news hewlett-packard is entering the 3d space. yesterday i spoke with a strategist in an exclusive interview at the company's 3d printing event in new york and asked thoughts about the impact of hp. >> i was glad to hear that hp is joining our markets. i think that hp has a very strong brand. i think it will help us to fight one of our main challenges, to create awareness to 3d printing and different manufacturing. nevertheless, as a competitor, hp is a serious company which will announce the technology. i'm not sure how it will be reflected in the products, i just don't know enough at this point of time. neverthele nevertheless, a very strong company and 25 years on the road and experience relevant for our custome

geffen. and then i read a book about richard branson. i just wanted to be an entrepreneur. >> you became quite the celebrity on the atlanta hip-hop scene. >> i was a good party promoter. notto a point where i was throwing their parties. they were going to my. giving me an opportunity opened up a whole world for me. but it could have been steve rivkin. he was the first person to give me a record deal for asher roth when no one did. >> how are you looking for talent in the early days? >> everyone thinks that every act i have ever signed has blown up because we have been on a crazy run. but i had to learn the hard way. . >> i failed there is a myth about the greatest entrepreneurs that are boiled down into legend. myth of scooter braun and what is the reality? >> the myth is that i plug them into this machine. it is hard work. every single day is hard work and i think there was a point in my career when i felt i had done such a good job that i went from ok scooter braun entrepreneur to being justin bieber's manager. i think people think that success is this beautiful glamorous thing.

trying to build great products and do great things. >> richard branson has a private island. steve ballmer is buying a sports team. what do you do? with all of the money you have made? >> most of it is still in linkedin stock. i am building the world with linkedin. i serve on a number of different nonprofit boards. i try to finance projects that i think are interesting. >> are we going to see you start something else? another company? >> probably not. i work pretty closely with them, but there is a long way to go with linkedin. i would say that is unlikely. you will see me partnering with a bunch of great young entrepreneurs, and trying to figure out how to build new things. >> reid hoffman, thank you for joining us. it has been a pleasure. >> thank you. ♪ ♪ >> its building blocks are known worldwide. its brand is among the globe's most admired. it is the fastest-growing toymaker on the planet. we are at a company that less than a decade ago was losing a million dollars a day and is being transformed. >> it is going to be in the coming years a case study in how you turn around

products and do great things. >> richard branson has a private island. steve ballmer is buying a sports team. what do you do? with all of the money you have made? >> most of it is still in linkedin stock. i am building the world with linkedin. i serve on a number of different nonprofit boards. i try to finance projects that i think are interesting. >> are we going to see you start something else? another company? >> probably not. i work pretty closely with them, but there is a long way to go with linkedin. i would say that is unlikely. you will see me partnering with a bunch of great young entrepreneurs, and trying to figure out how to build new things. >> reid hoffman, thank you for joining us. it has been a pleasure. >> thank you. ♪ . . >> johnson & johnson is a company with many products and brands that has been around for 128 years. what is ahead for the next century? >> we believe in a diversified model. >> that strategy is not going away. it the company also has its eye on an emerging market. >> the growth we have seen in asia was impressive. >> new global standards are also a p

rocket was using a new fuel. richard branson, hoping to take six passengers to weightlessness and go back to earth. in a tweet, he said thanks for all messages of support. i'm flying in immediately. and 700 people have put down for the $250,000 ticket. but this shows that rocket science is tough. tuesday night, the rocket to supply the space station blew up. this is not the death knell for space travel? >> no. two or three are going to succeed, and we'll go from there. >> reporter: tonight, an investigative team is on it way. the only word on the surviving pilot, he's doing as good as can be expected. >>> and tonight, more details on the fiery crash we reported on last night. tonight, investigators revealing that three of the four people killed were found in a flight simulator inside the building where they were doing training. >>> we move on to the severe weather moving in as millions of trick or treaters going out for halloween. and this is the commute home in michigan tonight. snow on the jack o'lanterns in chicago tonight. and rob marciano, now tracking the cold this weekend. >>

larry page has praised the idea of a shorter workweek. richard branson lets his employees take time off whenever they want and then there's carlos slim the richest man in the world thinks you should have a four-day weekend every week. and he just told me it's a matter of time. >> i'm sure it will happen. >> you think so? >> yes, i am. i think it will happen. i don't know when. but i believe that people shall work like it has been during the development of technology. the increase of productivity, there's another way. i think we shall work, the people shall work three days. >> three days? >> maybe 11 hours. but not 60 or 65, you retire at 75. i think machines will work 24 hours. will work as much as possible. everything should work more. but you should have more time for you during all your life not when you are 65 and you retire but since you are in the market force you will have more time for entertainment, for family, for quality of your life, and also to train, to find a better job. and if not you will have a lot of possibilities for that. and you will make stronger, the economy stro

. this was a suborbital passenger craft known as the spaceship 2 developed by billionaire richard branson of virgin galactic. the company says the space shift experienced some sort of in flight anomaly. >>> some quick thinking might have saved lives earlier this week when this rocket exploded off the virginia coast. a spokesman for orbital sciences says an official hit the self-destruct button moments after liftoff when it became clear there was a problem. the official decided to destroy the rocket then to make sure it did not crash in a populated area. no one was on board. >>> prosecutors say they'll push for the death penalty for the pennsylvania man accused of killing a cop. a crowd of spectators was there booing and taunting eric frein as police walked him to his first court appearance. frein did not enter a plea. police caught him yesterday near an abandoned airplane hangar ending their 48 day manhunt. officers took frein into custody using the handcuffs and patrol car of the trooper he's accused of murdering. frein's capture means trick-or- treating is back on in the small t

billionaire sir richard branson who was planning to take a ride himself. the recreational space plane is designed for suborbital commercial flight, tens of thousands of miles above the earth. more than 700 customers have already signed up paying nearly a quarter million dollars per flight. virgin galactic is working with authorities to determine the cause of the crash. bigad shaban, cbs news. >>> actors leonardo dicaprio, ashton kutcher and kate winslet are reportedly on the customer list once commercial flight begin. >>> we've got an update now on a story you saw first here on wusa9. judge has cleared the way for a lawsuit to be brought against tepco, the tokyo electric power company that runs the fukushima nuclear plant. in january we brought you the story of naval administrative officer steve simmons, one of dozens who worked on the uss ronald reagan when they responded to the nuclear disaster at fukushima in 2011. simmons lost his ability to walk or stand months after coming home from japan. >>> always watching, always tracking, wusa9 first alert weather. >> we're stepped out on t

. company founder british billionaire richard branson says he's working with authorities to determine the cause of the accident. >>> some of the biggest names in casino gambling are ready to roll the dice skpex up and doan massachusetts. they said they could derail those plans with a referendum vote on tuesday. could it go bust before the first poker hand is even dealt? james moore has more from springfield, mass. >> reporter: on two run-down plots of land at opposite ends of massachusetts, two of the world's largest gaming companies are betting they can make a killing unless voters decide otherwise or can figure out what they're deciding. >> i think that's part of the problem. >> correct, it is. >> mgm reports and wynn have won licenses to build the first casinos in massachusetts, promising thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions in revenues. but opponents are asking voters to repeal the law allowing gambling with question 3. >> we need the 3,000 jobs. we want the 3,000 jobs. >> reporter: gaming companies are now spending big to defeat the plan. mgm has already invested $40 millio

. spaceship two is billionaire richard branson's project, one day take tours into space, headed to the scene right now. virgin galactic says the ship experienced quote serious anomaly. whatever happened after its carrier plane release philadelphia and spaceship two fired its engines, it exploded. >>> and this comes three days after a commercial rocket exploded after blastoff from nasa's supply facility. that rocket launch was supposed to propel unmanned capsule with supplies and even student project to the international space station. so these are two big blows to america's commercial space industry. >>> all right, so score one for a nurse in quarantine after returning ebola patients in sierra leone. won court fight today and can go where ever she want as long as she continues to monitor herself and symptoms by ebola. to force casey hinges observation into quarantine until november 1st. that's when the 21 day window would expire if somebody has ebola symptoms, would mostly appear in those 21 days. state health officials had wanted hickox to stay inside, but look what she did. yesterday

today. but once again, virgin galactic, started by as we all know sir richard branson, suffered the crash of a spaceship in the mohave desert. one person is dead. one seriously injured and we believe that to be the pilots potentially on board. by the way, the aircraft -- the carrier aircraft to get the spaceship into flight, the white knight 2 did land safely according to the company. guys, back to you. >> michelle, thank you for now. let's get more on what it means to the space travel industry with jane wells by knophone now. your thoughts? >> it sets things back. since 2008, branson is setting deadlines that the first tourism planes would take flight and deadlines have been repeatedly delayed including the latest now was supposed to happen by last december and now the first passenger flights by february, march. that's changing. all of this happening out in mohave where i visited several times. where the northrop grumman company and the first capsule that branson had and the x prize, they have been doing many of the tests there and the passenger flights, the tourism flights themsel

person. going head-to-head with the number two richest man. lot think there is a richard branson can do in this space. >> he looks into the corners of the room when he answers the question. he is not going to be laying any fiber or cable. the mobile -- 80% of the land lines. >> a monopoly? >> marketing money from richard branson won't hurt. >> mexico is trying to break up that monopoly. number eight, and other billionaire. -- another billionaire. that theyhas learned don't love working with him. goldman, citigroup, wells fargo. they try to get along with anybody. for them to say he is hard to work with, the guy must be hard to deal with. >> i don't think he is crying in his serial today. al today. cere >> the deutsche bank relationship can be up in the air. oversees japan's softbank. it will be interesting to see how he goes from here. they have not worked with him since 1998. cheap, but that he's he tries to cut down their commission and he has backed out on several deals. it could be good for shareholders. number seven, jack ma goes hollywood. making a studio, planning to acquire onli