Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo

Wreckage from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rests in desert terrain.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, left, and Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides, head back into an airport hangar after Branson addressed the media at the Mojave Air and Space Port on Saturday.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

A Kern County Sheriff’s helicopter searches over the town of Cantil for debris from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Law enforcement officials guard an area, surrounded by yellow tape, where the pilot’s body was found.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Kern County Sheriff officers keep watch as an investigator looks over the wreckage site of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo in Mojave.  (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo is unveiled in Mojave, California in this December 7, 2009 file photo.   (Phil McCarten / Reuters)

Mike Alsbury, photographed on April 3, 2003, was killed in a Virgin Galactic test flight that crashed Friday.  (David McNew / Getty Images)

Virgin founder Richard Branson speaks at a press conference at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mohave, California on November 1, 2014.   (Josh Edelson / AFP/Getty Images)

A combination of photos show Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo as it detaches from the jet airplane that carried it aloft and then explodes over the skies of the Mojave Desert, California October 31, 2014.   (Kenneth Brown / Reuters)

Wreckage from Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo in Mojave, California October 31, 2014.   (KNBC-TV / Reuters)

A piece of debris is seen near the scene of the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo near Cantil, California October 31, 2014.   (Lucy Nicholson / Reuters )

The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket explodes in mid-air during a test flight above the Mojave Desert in California October 31, 2014.   (Kenneth Brown / Reuters)