Michael Tyner Alsbury: Identified Pilot Killed in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo Crash

Wreckage lies near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, Calif. Saturday, Nov 1, 2014. The explosion killed a pilot aboard and seriously injured another while scattering wreckage in Southern California's Mojave Desert, witnesses and officials said. AP Photo/Ringo H.W. Chiu

MOJAVE, Calif.—California authorities have identified the pilot killed during a test flight of Virgin Galactic’s prototype space tourism rocket over the Mojave Desert.

Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood says the pilot was 39-year-old Michael Tyner Alsbury of Tehachapi, California.

Alsbury worked for Scaled Composites, the company developing the spaceship for billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism company.

The pilot who survived Friday’s crash has not been identified.