Richard Branson and his Galactic spacecraft: not ready to give up

“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 that the dream lives on,” a grim-faced Branson told reporters. “We do understand the risks involved, and we’re not going to push on blindly.

“Safety has always been our number one priority,” he added before heading off to rally grieving Virgin Galactic staff at the Mojave Air and Space Port.

The surviving pilot, Peter Siebold, is now “alert and talking with his family and doctors,” plane designer and builder Scaled Composites said in a statement.

SpaceShipTwo crashed and hurtled to the ground shortly after it had detached from a mothership at an altitude of around 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) during a test flight.

In the view of experts, the 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 $250,000 per person for a ticket on the company’s six-seater vehicle. Around 500 people, including a slew of celebrities such as Hollywood star Leonardo DiCaprio, have already reserved tickets on the first wave of Virgin Galactic flights, according to reports.

Branson said anyone who wanted to cancel their reservation would get their money back.

“Of course, anybody who ever wants a refund would be able to get a refund,” he said.

Branson hit back at early theories surrounding what may have caused the accident. “To be honest, I find it slightly irresponsible that people who know nothing about what they’re saying can be saying things before the NTSB makes their comments,” he said.

The 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 during testing. Private companies are rushing to fill the gap left by NASA, which ended its 30-year shuttle program in July 2011 with a final Atlantis mission to the International Space Station.

Analysts said the latest accident is a huge blow to the nascent industry. “You are not going to see any commercial space tourism flight next year or probably several years after that,” said Marco Caceres, an analyst and director of space studies for the Teal Group consultancy.