Peter Siebold, a 1990 graduate of
Davis Senior High School in
Davis, California, obtained his pilot's license at age 16. He has been a design engineer at Scaled Composites since 1996. Siebold holds a degree in
aerospace engineering from
California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, from 2001. Siebold was responsible for the simulator, navigation system, and
ground control system for the SpaceShipOne project at Scaled. Although he was one of four qualified pilots for SpaceShipOne, Siebold did not pilot the craft during the flights later in 2004 to meet the requirements of the
Ansari X Prize. Although Siebold flew SpaceShipOne to an altitude of , he did not cross the 100 km
Kármán line—the international standard for reaching space. For his contribution to the SpaceShipOne project, Siebold, along with
Mike Melvill and
Brian Binnie, received the 2004
Iven C. Kincheloe Award presented by the
Society of Experimental Test Pilots. Siebold became the Director of Flight Operations at Scaled. He won the Iven C. Kincheloe Award a second time in 2009, this time individually, for his work on the first WhiteKnightTwo,
VMS Eve, as chief test pilot.
SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise crash the spacecraft involved in the accident, attached to its mothership,
VMS EveOn October 31, 2014, Siebold was one of the two pilots flying the
Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo,
VSS Enterprise, along with Michael Alsbury, on a test flight, which suffered an anomaly, resulting in the death of Alsbury and loss of
Enterprise. VSS
Enterprise crashed in the California
Mojave Desert. Thrown clear of the
Enterprise when it broke up in mid-air, Siebold survived a descent from about at Mach 1 speed with just a flightsuit. His parachute deployed automatically at about , and, after landing, he was taken to the hospital for treatment. He suffered from eyesight degradation and eye pains. He was unable to keep his eyes open and he did not open his right eye until emergency personnel arrived. Siebold's flight suit was saturated with blood from bleeding in his right arm. He did not feel any lower body injuries. As Siebold removed his parachute harness a "clunking noise" was felt in his chest and Siebold became concerned about a potential spinal fracture. Upon arrival at the ER his flight suit was cut away. Siebold experienced a non-compound four-part fracture of his right
humerus. The ball of his ankle was also dislocated and fractured. He had a non-displaced fracture of his right
clavicle, a small gash in his right elbow (source of the blood on his flight suit), a deep scrape on his right wrist, and multiple scrapes on the back of his right shoulder. There was considerable bruising on his right chest but he did not know how it occurred. He did not recall any bruising on his left side. He had an abrasion under his chin which he felt was consistent with the location of his chin strap, and had multiple contusions and scrapes on his face. He was diagnosed with corneal scratches and doctors removed a piece of fiberglass from his left eye during a hospital stay. The eyes did not improve so he saw an ophthalmologist after being discharged. The ophthalmologist removed some foreign matter from his left eyelid and a "silver sliver" from his right cornea. His eyes improved immediately post procedure. ==References==