Acting National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Christopher Hart said yesterday the parts recovered were small enough to have been blown that far by the wind.
The NTSB is moving parts from the Mojave Desert into hangars as it continues its investigation into Friday's demise of Virgin Galactic's space tourism craft.
The agency has not concluded what shattered the aircraft, killing one pilot and injuring the other.
Initial results show that a system to slow the space plane's descent deployed too soon.