Astronauts who flew to 45,00ft to help launch the doomed Virgin Galactic spaceplane that malfunctioned in mid-air today saw the explosion that killed one of their friends, it was claimed. One pilot for the embattled space tourism company was killed when SpaceShipTwo, the advanced plane meant to take passengers into sub-orbital flight, came apart seconds after its mid-air launch. Rick 'CJ' Sturckow was one of the pilots flying the WhiteKnightTwo launching craft, MailOnline can reveal - and so would have been with the killed pilot - still unnamed - minutes before the disaster. Scroll down for video Explosion: SpaceShipTwo is pictured above blowing apart in mid-air after detatching from WhiteKnightTwo
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Rick 'CJ' Sturckow is one of the small pool of Virgin Galactic space pilots
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MailOnline can reveal he was flying launch craft - not doomed space plane
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SpaceShipTwo was carried to 45,000ft, released and exploded, killing one
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Another pilot parachuted from spacecraft, but was seriously hurt
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Family friend of Sturckows said he is fine - but would have been able to see
@placeholder's engines had kicked in after it detached from WhiteKnightTwo, a twin-hulled airplanes which carried SpaceShipTwo to launch altitude.