By DPA
Los Angeles : An explosion at a site where space entrepreneur Burt Rutan tests rocket engines left two people dead and four others hospitalised with critical injuries.
The blast took place Thursday in a remote corner of Mojave Airport in Kern County, California, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Authorities said that a tank containing nitrous oxide might have set off the explosion.
Rutan was the builder of the rocket that achieved the first manned, privately sponsored space flight in June 2004. The blast took place at a site operated by Scaled Composites, a company run by Rutan and due to be taken over by defence contractor and aerospace giant Northrop Grumman.
The corner of the small airport in the Southern California desert is used to test small rocket engines, the LA Times reported.