Spaceship Down: Hopes for space tourism within the next year were dashed yesterday with the crash into the Mojave Desert of SpaceShipTwo, a craft designed to take high-paying customers into sub-orbital space. One pilot was killed and the other seriously injured.

The plane, operated by Virgin Galactic, the company owned by British billionaire Richard Branson, was flying for the first time with a new plastic-based jet fuel designed to give more powerful thrust. Virgin Galactic has taken 700 reservations for flights costing up to $250,000. It’s now uncertain when they will begin.

It was the second disaster in a week for private space flight. On Tuesday the ground team for a supply rocket to the International Space Station hit the self-destruct button when the craft faltered on takeoff.

Quarantine: A judge in Maine handed nurse Kaci Hickox her freedom yesterday, saying she showed no signs of Ebola and that her isolation at home is not necessary. Hickox had tested negative for Ebola when she was first quarantined in New Jersey. Gov. Paul LePage, who swore to use his full powers to keep Hickox isolated from the public said, “As governor, I have done everything I can to protect the health and safety of Mainers.”

In Canada, authorities have suspended granting visas to travellers from West African countries affected by Ebola. Canada joins Australia in a move that’s been criticized by the World Health Organization.

The Beat Goes On: Former Florida A&M University marching band member Dante Martin was found guilty of manslaughter yesterday in the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion. Martin, 26, was described as the ringleader in a ritual in which Champion was forced to walk a gauntlet of band members beating him. He died of internal injuries. Martin faces up to 15 years in prison.

Nation: A third victim has died of injuries in last week’s Washington State school shooting. Fourteen-year-old Shaylee Chuckulnaskit had been shot in the head.

> Police in Santa Ana, Calif. are looking for a hit and run driver who ran down and killed three girls while they were trick or treating last night. Two of the girls were twins. The SUV that had been occupied by two men was abandoned nearby.

World: Mexico has released a Marine reserve sergeant who was arrested eight months ago crossing the border with three loaded guns and 400 rounds of ammunition in his car. A judge ordered the release without trial of retired Marine Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who had said he took a wrong turn and accidentally drove to a Mexican customs post.

>After two days of sometimes-violent protests, Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore resigned rather than try to extend his 27-year rule. The country’s top general is in charge and promises he will guide the country through elections and a restoration of Democratic rule.

>Boko Haram militants in Nigeria deny that they have reached a truce with the government and say that the more than 200 schoolgirls they kidnapped in April have been married. “We have married them off. They are in their marital homes,” Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video.

Did You Hear the One About?: A new biography of legendary entertainer Bob Hope delves into one of the most open secrets in Hollywood history. He was a sex machine. Although he was married to wife Dolores for 69 years, he had a string of affairs, pickups and hookers. A former Hope writer is quoted saying, “We’d go to a hotel, I swear to you, outside his room were three, four, five young, beautiful girls, waiting to be picked by him to come in . . . He was a star enjoying his stardom.’’

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