Officials have identified the two pilots in Friday's Virgin Galactic crash as Michael Alsbury, who died, and Peter Siebold, who was injured.

Fourteen years ago, Michael Alsbury was in his mid-20s, and just starting out his career in the Mojave Desert, where he would make a living beyond the clouds.

By 2014, Scaled Composites pilot and project engineer had spent 1,800 hours in the sky — a total of 75 days. The 39-year-old first flew in the SpaceShipTwo in 2010, and had flown in it at least seven times after that.

In April 2013, he boarded the spacecraft as co-pilot in the ship's first rocket-powered flight, the first time it would break the sound barrier. The whole event lasted a brief 10 minutes. Alsbury and pilot Mark Stucky reached Mach 1.2, flew 56,000 feet above the Earth's surface and eased back down to the desert.

A little more than a year later, on Friday of this year, Alsbury again boarded SpaceShipTwo for another test trip. It was a ride that Virgin Galactic, which partnered with Scaled Composites, called a "Halloween treat." Alsbury and Siebold soared for about an hour before their ship detached from WhiteKnightTwo, the vehicle that carries the spacecraft into the sky before it's ready to soar on its own.

Two minutes later, an "in-flight anomaly" occurred, Virgin Galactic said. The rocket engine was supposed to roar to life, but nothing happened. Instead, the SpaceShipTwo exploded, its body shattered and the shards dropped to Earth.

Asbury, who was found inside the wreckage, did not survive. Siebold, 43, parachuted out, but suffered major injuries. He was to undergo surgery, but there were no other details on his condition, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said Saturday.

Siebold, also a veteran of Scaled's spaceship test program, had been working for the company since 1996, according to his official biography on the organization's website. He has 17 years of flight experience and has flown more than 2,000 hours in 35 different fixed-wing aircrafts. A photo on Scaled's website shows him in his pilot uniform.

Not only is Siebold an experimental test pilot, but he is also a design engineer. He led the development of many parts of the SpaceShipOne program, including the Avionics/Navigation and Ground Control systems. Scaled Composites built SpaceShipOne for itself and SpaceShipTwo for Virgin Galactic. The promotional video for Mojave Air and Space Port below shows Siebold flying a SpaceShipTwo simulator in 2008 at 4:42.

Alsbury was a married father of two. He lived in Tehachapi, California, near the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the test flights were conducted, USA Today reported.

Michelle Saling, Alsbury's wife, expressed deep sorrow after her husband's death.

"I have lost the love of my life. I am living in hell right now," she told The Daily Maily.

Virgin Galactic officials have not said what caused the explosion. SpaceShipTwo was running on a new kind of fuel, but the fuel had been ground-tested four times. Virgin CEO Richard Branson expressed his sorrow on Saturday, and said the company would work to improve the safety and performance of its spacecraft. He also vowed to continue Virgin's mission to radically lower the cost of space travel.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press, Brittany Levine

Update Nov. 1, 2014, 3:30 p.m.: Information regarding Siebold, the injured pilot, included. Update Nov. 1, 2014, 4:15 p.m.: Video of Siebold flying a SpaceShipTwo simulator in 2008 added.