Virgin Galactic crash prompts 24 would-be astronauts to demand refund from Brasnson

Sir Richard Branson had big dreams of taking ordinary people to space and allow them to experience, even briefly, what weightlessness feels like as they go out into space and watch the Planet Earth from there.
However, the crash of SpaceShipTwo in California's Mojave Desert last Friday has come as a huge dampener. One pilot died in the crash and another one is in hospital. The net result is that as many as 24 'future astronauts' want to pull out and want refund of what they had paid.
They are wealthy investors who had signed up to be among the first space tourists with Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic program and have now had second thoughts and have given up their tickets.
Incidentally, as many as 800 persons have signed up to be passengers of space tourism and have stuck with Branson's venture for 10 years despite in spite of it facing numerous set-backs and hiccups. But, the fatal accident appears to have had a bad effect.
One of the unwilling ones is Peter Ulrich von May, an asset manager based in Switzerland, he no longer wishes to travel into space with Virgin Galactic and he has demanded his money back. It seems he had subscribed seven years ago when he was 63, he is still an active private pilot and in good health and does not know when his dream would materialize. Another high profile customers is Princess Beatrice – she will not be boarding the Virgin Galactic spacecraft after the disaster last week.
More than 700 people - including Hollywood celebrities like Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio - have bought tickets for Virgin Galactic space voyage flights, which sell for $250,000. Ashton Kutcher was one of the first celebrities to book his ticket - and the 500th person overall - and he has since been joined by Katy Perry, Justin Bieber, Russell Brand and Lady Gaga.
If these celebs want to opt out, it would cost millions to Sir Richard Branson. He has woven a dream for them and has to now face the consequences.

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.