SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles, Says NTSB

Lightweight debris from last week’s in-flight breakup of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane has been found as far away as 30 to 35 miles from the main crash site, the head of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday night.

The dispersal of debris testifies to the thoroughness of the plane’s disintegration, after an anomaly that occurred on Friday during a flight test high above California’s Mojave Desert. SpaceShipTwo’s wing-feathering system — a mechanism that’s designed to slow the craft down during its descent — has emerged as a focus of the NTSB’s investigation.

Experts on human performance have been added to…

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