Virgin Galactic says it could have a new space tourism craft ready to fly by next year.
Just days after the crash of SpaceShipTwo in the Mohave Desert, engineers are back in a hangar working on the other craft.
They say ground testing could be underway by next summer.
George Whitesides, the CEO of Virgin Galactic, said:“The team has been working hard on serial number 2.They are all eager to understand what happened and to move forward.”
An investigation into Friday’s crash, which claimed the life of one pilot and left another seriously hurt, is being carried out by the National Transportation Safety Board. Virgin says it is cooperating fully.
Whitesides said: “I think the collaboration that we have with the investigation staff is positive so far and my hope is that we’ll be able to make progress over the coming days.”
The investigators say there was a lot of data recorded from the ill-fated test flight and that will be a great help in determining the cause of the crash.