A rocket-powered aircraft designed for space tourists broke apart and crashed during a test flight in California’s Mojave Desert on Friday, killing one pilot and injuring the other. (Latest:Virgin Galactic will proceed with second SpaceShipTwo despite crash).

Virgin Galactic LLC’s SpaceShipTwo was on its first powered flight using a new fuel mixture for a redesigned engine system. If the first few test flights went well, it was supposed to take its inaugural passenger, company founder Richard Branson, out of the atmosphere in the next few months. Ahead of Friday’s test, company officials expected commercial service would begin as soon as early next year.

Regardless of what emerges as the cause of the disaster, which the company called a “serious anomaly,” the event is a setback for the budding space-tourism industry. It could even prompt federal efforts to step up oversight of such ventures.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of Mojave Air and Spaceport, said the flight began at 9:20 a.m. local time, and SpaceShipTwo was released from the its carrier aircraft at 10:10 a.m. and first noted the anomaly two minutes later.

While the test flight wasn’t public, Virgin Galactic tweeted that the craft’s engine had achieved ignition, following shortly after in another tweet that the craft had suffered an “in-flight anomaly.” Virgin Galactic said it would “work closely with relevant authorities to determine the cause.”