Richard Branson, head of Virgin Galactic and champion of commercialized space travel, promises to find out why his company's SpaceShipTwo exploded on Friday, injuring one pilot and killing one other, according to Spaceflight Now.
The pilot who perished was 39-year-old Michael Alsbury, who had flown in eight previous SpaceShipTwo test flights.
Engineers "understand the risks involved and we're not going to push on blindly. To do so would be an insult to all those affected by this tragedy. We're going to learn from what went wrong, discover how we can improve safety and performance and then move forwards together," Branson said at a press conference at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Calif. on Saturday, according to Spaceflight Now.
The incident on Friday was the first test of SpaceShipTwo since January and engineers were testing out a new fuel mixture designed to improve performance, according to Spaceflight Now.
"It's fair to say that all 400 engineers who work here, and I think most people in the world, would love to see the dream living on," he said, according to Spaceflight Now. "We owe it to our test pilots to find out exactly what went wrong, and once we've found out what went wrong, if we can overcome it, we'll make absolutely certain the dream lives on."
SpaceShipTwo was designed to carry passengers to an altitude of 50,000 feet before free falling so passengers can experience weightlessness. A hybrid motor would then kick in for the trip back to Earth.
Customers have paid, or started to make payments, on the $250,000 tickets. The operation was scheduled for next spring, according to Spaceflight Now. "They've [customers] been patient to date," Branson said. "I think most of them will be patient longer. We may lose one or two, but it doesn't look like it. Of course, anybody who ever wants a refund would be able to get a refund. We haven't used the money, we always decided it was best not to use the money. It just gave us the confidence to do the program knowing these people were so committed."
"We've always known that commercial space travel is an incredibly hard project," Branson also said, according to Spaceflight Now. "We've been undertaking a comprehensive testing program for many years, and safety has always been our number one priority. This is the biggest test program ever carried out in commercial aviation history, precisely to ensure that this never happens to the public. The bravery of test pilots generally cannot be overstated. Nobody underestimates the risks involved in space travel."
