‘We won’t push on blindly’ – Branson pledges full probe

Entrepreneur Richard Branson said he will “learn from what went wrong” during the Virgin Galactic flight which killed US test co-pilot Michael Alsbury.

The pilot, Peter Siebold, was said to be alert and talking to doctors after being found outside the spacecraft among the debris, but investigators have not yet spoken to him under medical advice.

“We do understand the risks involved and we are not going to push on blindly,” Mr Branson said. “To do so would be an insult to all those affected by this tragedy.”

The bravery of test pilots generally cannot be overstated Richard Branson

Investigators indicated the powered test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo on Friday was well recorded, offering them an abundance of data to help understand what caused it to crash in California’s Mojave desert, leaving a scattering of debris five miles long.

Pilot ejection

“When the debris field spans that large an area we know there was an in-flight separation,” said Christopher Hart, the head of the US transport safety agency.

Condolences for the brave Scaled Composites pilots & support for their families http://t.co/19p3t1GNNq

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) November 2, 2014

Touched by overwhelming support for team. Wish I could hug every person who has sent messages of support. Thank you http://t.co/Kv0ePEk9gs

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) November 1, 2014

“If it had crashed together all the pieces would be close to each other, but that spread of the data of the debris field tells us that it was an in-flight separation – and of course the question is why did that happen.”

Mr Hart was “not sure” that Mr Siebold had been able to eject, despite being found away from the main spacecraft debris.

“We know that one was out of the airplane, we don’t how that pilot got out of the airplane,” he added.

“There was a parachute that was found where that pilot was. We know that the other parachute was found undeployed. Why one was found out of the airplane and the other was not, we do not yet know.”

Michael Alsbury, 39, was a project engineer and test pilot at Scaled Composites, a subsidiary of Northrop Grumman, the company that built and designed the spacecraft for Virgin Galactic.

He was flying the spacecraft for the ninth time when it crashed.

Fuel concern

The investigation is likely to focus on SpaceShipTwo’s rocket engine, which was flying with a new type of fuel for the first time on Friday.

Virgin Galactic announced in May it was replacing its previous propellant used during the spaceship’s three previous rocket-powered test flights to get better performance.

The future of Mr Branson’s space tourism venture has been thrown into doubt as a result of the crash.

“We have always known that commercial space travel is an incredibly hard project,” he said.

“The bravery of test pilots generally cannot be overstated. Nobody underestimates the risks involved in space travel.”