Virgin Galactic aborts historic manned suborbital flight from New Mexico Spaceport

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, New Mexico (KVIA) -- Virgin Galactic's historic manned launch from Spaceport America was aborted Saturday morning after the rocket failed to launch.

According to the company's Twitter account, "The ignition sequence for the rocket motor did not complete. Vehicle and crew are in great shape. We have several motors ready at Spaceport America. We will check the vehicle and be back to flight soon."

A live Twitter feed from @NASASpaceFlight.com reported the craft "aborted after just 1 second of powered flight. THE CREW IS SAFE, having manually landed the craft after the abort."

An image from a live NASA feed showed a trail of smoke as the craft was descending.

"The trajectory is back to Spaceport America," @NASASpaceFlight.com tweeted. "Engine looks like it's smoking after shutdown."

Saturday's launch was flight number 288 for VMS Eve and number 20 for SpaceShipTwo Unity.

At 6:46 a.m. Saturday, Virgin Galactic tweeted the weather was good and they were targeting an 8 a.m. take-off. They launched at 8:24 a.m., according to the company's Twitter feed. The ascent was expected to take 45 minutes after which VSM Eve would release SpaceShipTwo Unity and the rocket motor would ignite.

"SpaceShipTwo Unity and the crew are on target to attempt our first rocket-powered flight from Spaceport America," the company tweeted early Saturday.

The launch window opened Friday, but high winds forced the company to postpone.

The company has until December 24 to complete its mission.