MOJAVE, Calif. — Federal accident investigators are headed to a desert crash site where a winged spaceship designed to give wealthy tourists a high-altitude view of Earth broke up during a test flight, killing one pilot and badly injuring another.

Also going to the area about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles was British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, whose SpaceShipTwo blew apart after being released from a carrier aircraft Friday. It was the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

Branson, said it was “among the most difficult trips I have ever had to make” but that he wants to be “with the dedicated and hardworking people who are now in shock at this devastating loss.”

“Space is hard — but worth it,” Branson wrote. “We will persevere and move forward together.”

Branson has been the front-runner in the fledgling race to give large numbers of paying civilians a suborbital ride that would let them experience weightlessness at the edge of space.

The National Transportation Safety Board was sending a “go team” Saturday to the crash area about 20 miles from the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the flight originated.

The spacecraft broke up after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, according to Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the plane breaking apart.

One pilot was found dead inside the spacecraft and another parachuted out and was flown by helicopter to a hospital, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said.

The accident happened about 50 minutes after takeoff and within minutes of the spaceship’s release from its mother ship, said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.