The pilot killed in the crash of the Virgin Galactic spaceship has been identified as Michael Alsbury, and the pilot who survived is Peter Siebold, Kern County Sheriff's Office spokesman Ray Pruitt said on Saturday, according to The Associated Press.
Alsbury, 39, was a husband and father of two, the AP reported. Siebold, 43, ejected from Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo and parachuted to the ground.
Alsbury had at least 15 years of flight experience and logged more than 1,600 hours as a test pilot and test engineer, according to a biography posted on the Society of Flight Test Engineers' website, according to the AP.
At Scaled Composites, Alsbury participated in the flight testing of nine different manned aircraft and co-piloted SpaceShipTwo when it broke the sound barrier during its first powered flight last year, the Los Angeles Times reported.
He was also sitting in the co-pilot's seat when the craft first dropped in 2010 from its carrier aircraft several miles above the Earth for an unpowered glide test, according to the LA Times.
Alsbury earned a degree in aeronautical engineering from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and was the recipient of Northrop Grumman's President's Award for Innovation-for-Affordability Excellence this year, the LA Times reported.
