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Branson heads to spacecraft crash site as probe starts
(MENAFN- Arab News) MOJAVE United States: British tycoon Richard Branson was poised to rally his grieving Virgin Galactic staff in California on Saturday as investigators began probing the spacecraft crash that left one pilot dead and another seriously injured.
A shocked Branson headed to the Mojave Desert within hours of Friday's test flight crash which saw the company's futuristic suborbital vehicle broken into several pieces and scattered across a wide area.
The crash was the second disaster to rock the private space industry in the space of a few days after an Antares rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded after take-off in Virginia in Tuesday.
Experts say Friday's accident will delay the advent of commercial space tourism by several years.
Virgin Galactic had hoped to start ferrying wealthy customers to the edge of space in 2015 charging $250000 per person for a ticket on the company's six-seater SpaceShipTwo.
Branson sounded a defiant note in a statement late Friday as he headed to California insisting that the accident would not end his dream of space travel for the paying public.
'We've always known that the road to space is extremely difficult and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history' he said.
'Space is hard but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together' he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board air safety agency is leading the investigation into the crash.
Early attention has focused on a new kind of fuel being used in Friday's flight the 35th by SpaceShipTwo. The plastic-based fuel had been tested on the ground before but not in flight.
Friday's accident was not the first tragedy to strike the Virgin Galactic program. In 2007 three people were killed after a rocket designed for use in SpaceShipTwo exploded at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Witnesses to Friday's accident said there was no obvious sign of an explosion from the ground after SpaceShipTwo was released by its mothership WhiteKnightTwo at an altitude of 45000 feet (13700 meters).
A shocked Branson headed to the Mojave Desert within hours of Friday's test flight crash which saw the company's futuristic suborbital vehicle broken into several pieces and scattered across a wide area.
The crash was the second disaster to rock the private space industry in the space of a few days after an Antares rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded after take-off in Virginia in Tuesday.
Experts say Friday's accident will delay the advent of commercial space tourism by several years.
Virgin Galactic had hoped to start ferrying wealthy customers to the edge of space in 2015 charging $250000 per person for a ticket on the company's six-seater SpaceShipTwo.
Branson sounded a defiant note in a statement late Friday as he headed to California insisting that the accident would not end his dream of space travel for the paying public.
'We've always known that the road to space is extremely difficult and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history' he said.
'Space is hard but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together' he said.
The National Transportation Safety Board air safety agency is leading the investigation into the crash.
Early attention has focused on a new kind of fuel being used in Friday's flight the 35th by SpaceShipTwo. The plastic-based fuel had been tested on the ground before but not in flight.
Friday's accident was not the first tragedy to strike the Virgin Galactic program. In 2007 three people were killed after a rocket designed for use in SpaceShipTwo exploded at the Mojave Air and Space Port.
Witnesses to Friday's accident said there was no obvious sign of an explosion from the ground after SpaceShipTwo was released by its mothership WhiteKnightTwo at an altitude of 45000 feet (13700 meters).
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