Destruction of Virgin Galactic spaceship puts Sir Richard Branson’s clock back

The destruction of Virgin Galactic spaceship over the Mojave Desert was, undoubtedly, a terrible disappointment for Sir Richard Branson. His vision was to take tourists on a fleeting thrill ride into the lower reaches of space.

It was a fatal accident and, in the opinion of Sir Richard Branson, such accidents can happen because it is the beginning of a long program. In the early days of aviation, there had been many incidents before aviation became very safe. Even in the early days of commercial space travel, there have been incidents and one can only hope that a day would come when people can travel to space safely.

The initial plans are to carry six passengers up into Space to get a stunning view of the Earth below and also experience a brief period of weightlessness before descending down into the thickening atmosphere and fly as an unpowered glider back to the airport where the flight had commenced.