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Surviving pilot of crashed Virgin Galactic spaceship described as ‘alert’

SpaceShipTwo
This Sept. 25, 2013, file photo, shows Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo at a Virgin Galactic hangar at Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File

MOJAVE, Calif. – The injured test pilot who survived the destruction of Virgin Galactic’s prototype space tourism rocket is described as alert and talking with his family and doctors.

Word about the condition of Peter Siebold came Saturday in a statement from his employer, Scale Composites, the Mojave, California, company developing SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic.

Scaled Composites says Siebold, its director of flight operations, was serving as pilot during Friday’s ill-fated test flight high over the Mojave Desert.

Co-pilot Michael Alsbury was killed.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the cause of the accident.

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