A rocket exploded Thursday at an airport in the California desert, killing two people and seriously injuring four others, firefighters said. "There was an explosion on the Mojave Airport at 2:30 this afternoon (2130 GMT)," fire engineer Roberto Figueroa of the Kern County Fire Department told AFP. "There are two confirmed fatalities and four seriously injured."
"What exploded was a rocket," he said.
The cause of the explosion was not immediately known.
The airport is located 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Los Angeles.
The Mojave desert is the site of the aerospace company Scaled Composites, run by US engineer Burt Rutan, who in 2004 won a 10-million-dollar prize by launching a rocket to space twice within a two-week period.
Scaled Composites, which is currently working with British billionaire Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic to send tourists to space by 2010, did not answer AFP telephone calls late Thursday.
