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Medical marijuana grow site proposed for Webster

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 02 November 2014 | 00.48

WEBSTER, Mass. — A Newton company has announced that it wants to open a medical marijuana cultivation operation in Webster.

Garden Remedies, a registered marijuana dispensary organization based in Newton, is scheduled to make a second appearance before selectmen on Wednesday.

The first appearance was in late October.

The Telegram & Gazette reports that Garden Remedies wants to open the growing center inside a 100,000-square-foot old mill building.

Registered marijuana dispensaries cannot begin cultivation until both their dispensary and cultivation sites have received final approval from the state Public Health Department.

A Natick-based business had proposed a cultivation operation at the same site last year, but Town Administrator John McAuliffe said that proposal felt rushed.


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It's time to fall back an hour, get extra shut-eye

WASHINGTON — It's time to reclaim that hour of sleep you lost last spring.

Most of the United States is turning back the clock this weekend for the annual shift back to standard time.

For many, that means making the switch before hitting the sack Saturday night, even though the change doesn't become official until 2 a.m. Sunday local time.

Residents of Hawaii, most of Arizona and some U.S. territories don't have to change; daylight saving time is not observed in those places.

Public safety officials say this is also a good time to put a new battery in the smoke alarm, no matter where you live.

Daylight saving time returns at 2 a.m. local time the second Sunday in March — March 8, 2015.

___

Online:

Government site: http://www.nist.gov/pml/div688/localtime.cfm


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US stocks end a turbulent month at a record high

NEW YORK — For stock investors, there was no shortage of drama in October.

Stocks started the month modestly below a record high, only to cascade to their worst slump in two years. But after flirting with a correction, or a 10 percent drop, the U.S. market rebounded and closed at all-time highs on the last day of the month.

All told, U.S. stocks ended October solidly higher, up 2.3 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average capped the rally by rising 195.10 points, or 1.1 percent, to end at 17,390.52 on Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 rose 23.40 points, or 1.2 percent, to 2,018.05 and the Nasdaq composite added 64.60 points, or 1.4 percent, to 4,630.74.

Both the Dow and the S&P 500 closed at record highs.

It's a remarkable turn given the month's volatility, which at times approached levels from the 2008 financial crisis. Then again, the month has an unfortunate history for unsettling moves, such as the stock market crashes of 1929 and 1987.

This October, the market's seesaw path was driven by fears that Europe's economy was slipping back into a recession, worries about plunging oil prices and concerns of possible weakness in the U.S. economy. Oh, and don't forget Ebola. Those anxieties sent the market, for the most part, straight down for two weeks.

The nadir came on Oct. 15, when the S&P 500 came with a hair's breadth of going into a correction. Investors had suspected such a drop. The last one occurred in late 2011, and historically corrections happen every 18 months or so.

But just after the market came close to going into a correction, it bounced right back. Strong U.S. corporate earnings were the primary driver of the rebound as well as signs that central banks in Japan and Europe were going to do all they could to stop their economies from dragging everyone else down with them.

"I don't think it's a surprise that we came close to a correction. We've been expecting one for a while. I think the bigger surprise has been how we rip-roared all the way back up," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. "When you hit someone over their head with a hammer, you don't expect them to get up immediately."

U.S. companies have been, for the most part, reporting strong quarterly results the last two weeks. Corporate profits are up 7.3 percent from a year ago, according to FactSet, compared with the 4.5 percent investors had expected at the beginning of the month. And any worries about the U.S. economy earlier in the month evaporated as the data rolled in, mostly recently Thursday's data showing the U.S. economy grew at a 3.5 percent pace last quarter.

Friday's gains were driven by the Bank of Japan, which surprised investors by announcing it would increase its bond and asset purchases by 10 trillion yen to 20 trillion yen ($90.7 billion to $181.3 billion) to about 80 trillion yen ($725 billion) annually. The announcement came after data showed that the world's third-largest economy remains in the doldrums, with household spending dropping and unemployment ticking up.

Japan's move comes only two days after the U.S. Federal Reserve brought an end to its own bond-buying program. Investors have been hopeful that the European Central Bank might also start buying bonds to stimulate that region's economy by keeping interest rates low and injecting cash into the financial system. That form of stimulus is called quantitative easing, also known among investors as "QE."

"The Japanese central bank has taken the QE baton from the Fed, and equity traders couldn't be happier," said David Madden, market analyst at IG.

Japan's stock market rose 4.8 percent to the highest level since 2007.

The Japanese currency weakened dramatically following the Bank of Japan's announcement. The yen slumped 2.6 percent against the dollar to 112 yen. The yen is trading at the lowest level in more than five years. Japanese companies typically like a weak Japanese yen because it makes their exported goods cheaper abroad.

European stock markets rose broadly following the Bank of Japan's announcement on hopes that the ECB could be tempted to follow Japan's lead in stepping up stimulus measures. However, few think anything will be announced at the ECB's next policy meeting next Thursday.

"The willingness of the Bank of Japan to ease further in the fight against deflation will encourage those who think the ECB should be doing the same," said Julian Jessop, chief global economist at Capital Economics.

Britain's FTSE 100 rose 1.3 percent. France's CAC 40 jumped 2.2 percent and Germany's DAX climbed 2.3 percent.

In other markets, the price of U.S. benchmark crude oil fell 58 cents to $80.54 a barrel in New York as increasing production from OPEC members added to already high global supplies of oil.

Brent crude, used to price oil in international markets, dipped 38 cents to $85.86 in London. In other energy futures trading on the NYMEX, wholesale gasoline fell 2.6 cents to close at $2.169 a gallon, heating oil fell was flat at $2.515 a gallon and natural gas rose 4.6 cents to close at $3.873 per 1,000 cubic feet.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the U.S. 10-year Treasury note rose to 2.34 percent from 2.31 percent Thursday.

In metals trading, the price of gold fell $27 to $1,171.60 an ounce. Silver fell 31 cents to $16.11 an ounce and copper fell 2 cents to $3.05 a pound.


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Luxury on four floors in quaint Bay Village home

This charming single-family rowhouse in Bay Village sits on a private way adjacent to the Elliot Norton Park.

The two-bedroom home at 2 Lyndeboro Place has four levels of living space, and has had custom built-ins added in the kitchen, basement and third-floor living area this past year. It's on the market for $999,000.

The attached rowhouse is one of four on a cobblestone private way in a far corner of Bay Village. The current owners have just repointed the brick and done other repairs on the exterior.

You enter into a dining/living space with hardwood floors, a wrought-iron chandelier and a wood-burning fireplace. The adjacent kitchen was completely redone in 2005, but built-ins with extra shelf and storage space were added in the past year. The existing cabinets were also just refaced and new pendant and overhead lighting added.

There are 17 cabinets in all, and there's beige granite countertops with tumbled marble backsplash. Stainless-steel appliances include a GE refrigerator and gas stove and a Fisher Paykel dishwasher.

Off the kitchen is a half bath with a pedestal sink.

A turning staircase leads up to two bedrooms on the second floor. The master bedroom has two windows, hardwood floors and a chandelier, and there's an en-suite marble bathroom with mosaic tile surround for a tub and shower.

The second bedroom also has oak floors but doesn't have its own bathroom. There's a closet off this room with a washer and dryer hookup.

The third floor was just transformed this year into a full-floor living area with built-in window seat with storage beneath as well as built-in bookcases. This space has new hardwood floors and recessed lighting, a wall of front-facing windows, and it steps up to a just refinished outdoor deck with views out over Bay Village.

The basement, suitable as a family room or home office, was just redone this year with new hardwood floors, recessed lighting and a wall-length built-in with a desk and bookshelves.

The home has central air conditioning and forced hot air heating system. It also comes with one deeded outdoor parking space.

Home Showcase

• Address: 2 Lyndeboro Place, Bay Village
• Bedrooms: Two
• Bathrooms: One full, one half
• List price: $999,000
• Square feet: 1,512
• Price per square foot: $661
• Annual taxes: $8,470
• Location: Three blocks from restaurants and shops along Boylston Street, and two blocks to offerings along Stuart and Arlington Streets.
• Built in: 1900; kitchen redone in 2005; basement redone, custom built-ins added in 2014
• Broker: Briggs Johnson of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage at 617-797-2720

Pros:

  • Third-floor living area just redone with custom built-ins
  • Basement refinished into family room home office with built-ins within the past year
  • Outdoor deck flooring just redone
  • Comes with one deeded outdoor parking space

Cons:

  • Lots of stairs to climb
  • No bathroom on third floor and second bedroom doesn't have bathroom

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Russia's top radio station slapped by government

MOSCOW — The Russian government's communications watchdog has issued a warning to a top independent radio station over a program about Ukraine.

Roskomnadzor's warning to Ekho Moskvy related to this week's program, in which two journalists exchanged first-hand accounts of fighting between pro-Russia rebels and government forces in eastern Ukraine.

The journalists, Sergei Loiko of the Los Angeles Times and Timur Olevskiy of Russia's independent Dozhd television station, talked, in particular, about fighting around the airport in the main rebel-held city of Donetsk, that has continued despite a truce signed in September.

The agency said Friday the program contained "information justifying war crimes," but didn't elaborate.

Ekho Moskvy's editor-in-chief, Alexei Venediktov, rejected the claim and said the station would appeal the warning.

Under Russian law, a media outlet could face closure if it receives two warnings in one year. The warning was the first for Ekho Moskvy.

While most Russian media toe the government's line, Ekho Moskvy has given a platform to Kremlin critics despite being majority-owned by a branch of Gazprom, Russia's state-controlled gas giant.

Media freedom in Russia has steadily shrunk under the rule of President Vladimir Putin. With all nationwide television stations under state control and most print media full of adulation for Putin, authorities have methodically moved to tame few remaining independent media outlets amid a strain with the West over Ukraine.

Early this year, several leading cable and satellite providers cut Dozhd, the top independent TV station, from their packages following an inquiry by prosecutors. Later, the owner of Lenta.ru, a leading online news outlet, fired its editor over coverage of Ukraine.

And last month, Russian lawmakers approved a bill that would limit foreign ownership in Russian media to 20 percent. The measure was widely seen as directed at critical print outlets with foreign ownership, such as the Vedomosti business daily and the Russian Forbes magazine.


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Dow delivers Halloween treat

Stocks saved their best tricks for Halloween, with the Dow Jones surging by 195 points to an all-time high yesterday, capping a month that brought as many twists and turns as a Wes Craven horror flick.

U.S. stocks finished the heady month of October up 2.3 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average soared 1.1 percent yesterday alone, closing at 17,390.52. For the Standard & Poor's 500, it was a 23 point increase — or 1.2 percent — to a record-high 2,018.05. The Nasdaq picked up 64.60 points — a 1.4 percent gain — to close at 4,630.74.

The rocky month of October — a time that has seen horrific stock market crashes in both 1929 and 1987 — this year nearly approached levels from the 2008 financial crisis, fueled by fears over Europe slipping back into recession and plunging oil prices.

The S&P nearly went into a correction on Oct. 15, but the markets bounced right back.

"I don't think it's a surprise that we came close to a correction. We've been expecting one for a while. I think the bigger surprise has been how we rip-roared all the way back up," said Bob Doll, chief equity strategist at Nuveen Asset Management. "When you hit someone over their head with a hammer, you don't expect them to get up immediately."

The encouraging economic news was offset slightly by a Commerce Department report yesterday that showed U.S. consumers cut spending in September for the first time in eight months, and incomes grew at the slowest pace this year.

Spending, which accounts for 70 percent of economic activity, has fallen only three times since the recession ended in 2009, but slipped 0.2 percent in September. Income edged up 0.2 percent.

Economists say the slide should be short-lived with the impending holiday season, a strengthening job market and a growing economy.

Herald wire services contributed to this report.


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Spacecraft for tourists breaks up on test flight

MOJAVE, Calif. — A winged spaceship designed to take tourists on excursions beyond Earth's atmosphere broke up during a test flight Friday over the Mojave Desert, killing a pilot in the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, said Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the accident.

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 crash area was about 120 miles north of downtown Los Angeles and 20 miles from the Mojave Air and Space Port, where the mid-morning flight originated.

British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, 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 and see the Earth from the edge of space. Branson was expected to arrive in Mojave on Saturday, as were investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board.

Branson released a statement Friday night saying 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."

The accident occurred just as it seemed commercial space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

When Virgin Group licensed the technology from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put $26 million into SpaceShipOne, Branson envisioned operating flights by 2007. In interviews last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

"It's a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon," said John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University. "There were a lot of people who believed that the technology to carry people is safely at hand."

Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a fleet of craft. This was only the fourth flight to include a brief rocket firing. The rockets fire after the spacecraft is released from the underside of a larger carrying plane. During other flights, the craft either was not released from its mothership or functioned as a glider after release.

At 60 feet long, SpaceShipTwo featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.

The accident's cause was not immediately known, nor was the altitude at which the break-up occurred. The first rocket-powered test flight peaked at about 10 miles above Earth. Commercial flights would go 62 miles or higher.

One difference on this flight was the type of fuel.

In May, Virgin Galactic announced that SpaceShipTwo would switch to a polymide-based fuel — a type of thermoplastic. It had been fueled with a type of rubber called HTPB.

Scaled Composites, the company building the spaceship for Virgin Galactic, had extensively tested the new fuel formulation on the ground, President Kevin Mickey said. He characterized the new fuel as "a small nuance to the design."

Officials said they had not noticed anything wrong before the flight. The problem happened about 50 minutes after takeoff and within minutes of the spaceship's release from its mothership, said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic — owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000. The company says that "future astronauts," as it calls customers, include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. The company reports receiving $90 million from about 700 prospective passengers.

Former NASA top space scientist Alan Stern has seats to fly on Virgin Galactic and isn't rethinking his plans.

"Let's not be Chicken Littles here," said Stern. "I want to be part of the opening of this future frontier."

Friday's accident was the second this week involving private space flight. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff in Virginia.

Virgin Galactic plans to launch space tourism flights from the quarter-billion-dollar Spaceport America in southern New Mexico once it finished developing its rocket ship.

Taxpayers footed the bill to build the state-of-the-art hangar and runway in a remote stretch of desert in southern New Mexico as part of a plan devised by Branson and former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. Critics have long challenged the state's investment, questioning whether flights would ever get off the ground.

SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004.

"It's an enormously sad day for a company," Burt Rutan told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home in Idaho, where he lives since retiring.

Friday's death was not the first associated with the program.

During testing for the development of a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo in July 2007, an explosion at the Mojave spaceport killed three workers and critically injured three others. A California Division of Occupational Safety and Health report said the blast occurred three seconds after the start of a cold-flow test of nitrous oxide, which is used in the propulsion system of SpaceShipTwo. The engine was not firing during that test.

___

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth Borenstein in Washington, and John Antczak, Christopher Weber, Tami Abdollah and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.


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China manufacturing growth falls in October

BEIJING — China's manufacturing growth declined further in October amid a slowing economy and languishing global demand, according to surveys released Saturday.

The China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing said its purchasing managers' index dropped by 0.3 percent from September to 50.8 percent. The index is a 100 point scale on which any number above 50 indicates an expansion of manufacturing.

The same figure was reported by the government's National Bureau of Statistics, which surveys 3,000 businesses of all sizes across the country.

The deceleration reflects a slowing of China's economic growth to a five-year low of 7.3 percent in the third quarter of the year.

"The small decline in the October PMI figure shows that economic growth still faces a certain amount of downward pressure," federation analyst Zhang Liqun said in a report.

Zhang said new government growth stabilizing policies unveiled in the third quarter were starting to have an effect in the real economy and would soon start to impact on PMI figures.

"According to this forecast, PMI figures won't go be trending downward in the long-term, nor will economic growth be trending downward in the long term," Zhang said.

Chinese leaders have said full-year economic growth may fall short of their 7.5 percent target, but say that's acceptable as long as inflation stays low and the economy continues to produce jobs.

The World Bank has warned that growth could decline to close to 7 percent next year, saying Beijing needs to promote competition and efficiency by reforming its labor and real estate markets along with its state-run financial system.

That warning gave new urgency to calls from reform advocates for the government of President Xi Jinping to move ahead with ambitious plans to give entrepreneurs and market forces a bigger role in the world's second-largest economy.


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'Nightcrawler' tops unlively Halloween weekend with $13 million

Jake Gyllenhaal's "Nightcrawler" was the only sign of life at the box office.

Halloween weekend was a ghost town for new releases, giving the Open Road thriller an easy win. The film was runner-up to the supernatural thriller "Ouija" on Friday when it opened to $3.2 million, but will creep its way to the top, toward a $13 million debut, this weekend.

"Nightcrawler" was close to taking the title of lowest-grossing weekend winner of the year from Marvel-Disney's "Guardians of the Galaxy," which earned $10.4 million in early September in its sixth frame.

The crime drama, which cost $8.5 million to produce, follows Gyllenhaal as a freelancer who's desperate for work when he discovers the dangerous world of L.A. crime journalism, ultimately leading him to go to any extreme for a meaty story.

"Nightcrawler," which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, was bolstered by rave reviews, earning it a 93% ratting on Rotten Tomatoes.

"Ouija" -- last weekend's victor -- grossed $3.5 million Stateside on Friday in its second weekend. Universal's seance pic looks to clear between $10 million and $11 million this weekend, which would mark a 47% decline.

"Ouija" was produced for less than $5 million by Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes and micro-budget master Jason Blum for Universal in tandem with Hasbro.

Holdovers continued to lead the rest of the pack, with the Brad Pitt-starrer "Fury" coming in third. The WWII tank drama made $2 million on Friday as it shot toward $9 to $10 million in its third week. The Sony pic will have earned almost $61 million by weekend's end.

Ben Affleck's "Gone Girl" continued to impress by finishing fourth on Friday in its fifth frame. The martial thriller brought in $1.8 million on Friday and is eyeing almost $8 million this weekend, when it will likely fall to fifth.

The movie is a runaway hit as it stands to earn between $135 million and $136 million by Sunday. "Gone Girl" -- budgeted at $61 million -- has already passed "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" as David Fincher's highest-grossing film in the U.S.

Another Fox title, "The Book of Life," landed in fifth place on Friday with $1.1 million, but will move up to fourth by Sunday. The animated Day of the Dead pic is en route to north of $8 million this weekend, which would mark a 17% decline.

With most studios deciding against releasing new fare on Halloween, especially since it fell on a Friday this year, "Before I Go to Sleep" was this weekend's only other newcomer. The Clarius Entertainment thriller starring Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman bowed to an estimated $571,000 on Friday with a lukewarm weekend launch just north of $2 million.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC


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Branson vows to find out cause of spacecraft crash

MOJAVE, Calif. — Billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, saluting the bravery of test pilots, vowed Saturday to find out what caused the crash of his prototype space tourism rocket, killing one crew member and injuring another.

In grim remarks at the Mojave Air and Space Port where the craft was under development, Branson gave no details of Friday's accident and deferred to the National Transportation Safety Board, whose team had just arrived.

"We are determined to find out what went wrong," he said, asserting that safety has always been the top priority of the program that envisions taking wealthy tourists to the edge of space for a brief experience of weightlessness and a view of Earth below.

More than a dozen investigators in a range of specialties were forming teams to examine the crash site, collect data and interview witnesses, NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart told a press conference at Mojave Air and Space Port, where the winged spacecraft was under development.

Hart said the investigation will have similarities to a typical NTSB probe as well as some differences.

"This will be the first time we have been in the lead of a space launch (accident) that involved persons onboard," said Hart, noting that the NTSB did participate in investigations of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters.

Hart said he did not immediately know the answers to such questions as whether the spaceship had flight recorders or the altitude of the accident, but noted that test flights are usually well documented.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo blew apart about 20 miles from the Mojave airport after being released from a carrier aircraft Friday. It was the second fiery setback for commercial space travel in less than a week.

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 NTSB investigators were expected to head to an area about 20 miles from the Mojave airfield where debris from the spaceship fell over a wide area of uninhabited desert.

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 occurred just as it seemed commercial space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

Branson once envisioned operating flights by 2007. Last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

"It's a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon," said John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University.

Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a fleet of craft. This was only the fourth flight to include a brief rocket firing. The rockets fire after the spacecraft is released from the underside of a larger carrying plane. During other flights, the craft either was not released from its mothership or functioned as a glider after release.

At 60 feet long, SpaceShipTwo featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead.

The accident's cause was not immediately known, nor was the altitude at which the blast occurred. The first rocket-powered test flight peaked at about 10 miles above Earth. Commercial flights would go 62 miles or higher.

The problem happened about 50 minutes after takeoff and within minutes of the spaceship's release from its mothership, said Stuart Witt, CEO of the Mojave Air and Space Port.

Virgin Galactic — owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi — sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000. The company says that "future astronauts," as it calls customers, include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. The company reports receiving $90 million from about 700 prospective passengers.

Ken Baxter was one of those who had signed up to be among the first to make the flight.

Despite the disaster, Las Vegas resident Baxter said he was confident that the flight will happen one day.

"It's very sad for the test pilots, but I'm ready to go into space with Richard Branson," he said.

Friday's accident was the second this week involving private space flight. On Tuesday, an unmanned commercial supply rocket bound for the International Space Station exploded moments after liftoff in Virginia.

SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004.

"It's an enormously sad day for a company," Rutan told The Associated Press in a phone interview from his home in Idaho, where he has lived since retiring.

Friday's death was not the first associated with the program. Three people died during a blast at the Mojave Air and Space Port in 2007 during testing work on a rocket motor of SpaceShipTwo.

___

Pritchard reported from Los Angeles. Associated Press writers David Koenig in Dallas, Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Seth Borenstein in Washington, and John Antczak, Christopher Weber, Tami Abdollah and Robert Jablon in Los Angeles also contributed to this report.


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