--- title: SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles, Says NTSB description: 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... canonical: https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-04T13:58:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:03:35.688Z article:section: Science og:title: SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles og:description: 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... og:url: https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3242dfb9296fb125/698763fdf887dc039de87de9/141103-ntsb_05445d81eea9bf151ca76098219a560a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: SpaceShipTwo NTSB og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles twitter:description: 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... twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3242dfb9296fb125/698763fdf887dc039de87de9/141103-ntsb_05445d81eea9bf151ca76098219a560a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles, Says NTSB > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Nov 4, 2014 1:58 PM UTC  Acting NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart uses a model to demonstrate how the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was supposed to "feather" its wings during an interview with the a video crew, Nov. 3, 2014. Acting NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart uses a model to demonstrate how the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane was supposed to "feather" its wings during an interview with the a video crew, Nov. 3, 2014. NTSB by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Nov 4, 2014 1:58 PM UTC 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](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/how-spaceshiptwos-feathered-wings-were-supposed-work-n240256) — has emerged as a focus of the NTSB’s investigation. Experts on human performance have been added to… [Read more from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/spaceshiptwo-rocket-plane-debris-spread-over-35-miles-ntsb-says-n240556) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/"},"headline":"SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles, Says NTSB","datePublished":"2014-11-04T13:58:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:03:35.688Z","description":"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...","url":"https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/","keywords":["Space","Tech","Transportation","Accident","Virgin Galactic","Richard Branson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3242dfb9296fb125/698763fdf887dc039de87de9/141103-ntsb_05445d81eea9bf151ca76098219a560a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3242dfb9296fb125/698763fdf887dc039de87de9/141103-ntsb_05445d81eea9bf151ca76098219a560a.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SpaceShipTwo NTSB","caption":"SpaceShipTwo NTSB","creditText":"NTSB","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3556111/spaceshiptwo-richard-branson-virgin-galactic/","name":"SpaceShipTwo Rocket Plane Debris Spread Over 35 Miles, Says NTSB"}}]}] ```