SpaceShipTwo crash: is this the end for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic dream?

VIRGIN boss Richard Branson has been touting the advent of space tourism for over 10 years. But will the crash of SpaceShipTwo ground those plans permanently?

THE crash of the Virgin Galactic space vehicle which killed a pilot will likely set back the nascent space tourism industry by several years, experts have warned.

SpaceShipTwo crashed in Kern County, California, on its 35th test flight, with debris spread over a wide area.

FULL DETAILS: Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes during test flight

The incident killed one pilot while another is being treated in hospital after ejecting from the vehicle.

While that unnamed pilot is treated, attention is turning to what the accident means for the future of private space tourism — an industry which is still very much in its infancy, despite being hyped over many years.

End of a dream? ... an overhead view of the debris from SpaceShipTwo, which crashed in California.

English billionaire Richard Branson announced the creation of his space tourism company Virgin Galactic in September 2004, with plans to commence low-orbital flights next year.

The accident occurred just as it seemed commercial space flights were near, after a period of development that lasted far longer than hundreds of prospective passengers had expected.

When Virgin Group licensed the technology from Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who put $26 million into SpaceShipOne, Branson envisioned operating flights by 2007. In interviews last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.

The flamboyant businessman tweeted shortly after news of the incident, saying he was flying to California immediately to join the team.

It is expected that he will give a statement to the media after being briefed on the accident.

‘Space is hard’ ... Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides states the obvious.

Virgin Galactic chief executive George Whitesides summed up the mood when he told reporters after the crash: “Space is hard, and today was a tough day”.

“Our future rests on hard days like this but we believe we owe it to folks flying this vehicle ... to understand this and move forward, which is what we do,” he said.

The incident is the second disaster involving a US spacecraft this week, after an unmanned Orbital Science rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded after launch on Tuesday.

Moment of the disaster ... The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket explodes. Picture: AP Photo/Kenneth Brown

Virgin Galactic and Boeing had both made plans for commencing low-level orbit joyflights by 2015, but analysts say the SpaceShipTwo accident is a huge blow to the nascent industry.

“It’s a setback for the tourism industry,” said Marco Caceres, an analyst and director of space studies for the Teal Group, a defence and aerospace consultancy near Washington DC.

“You are not going to see any commercial space tourism flight next year or probably several years after that,” he told AFP.

Similar comments came from John Logsdon, retired space policy director at George Washington University.

“It’s a real setback to the idea that lots of people are going to be taking joyrides into the fringes of outer space any time soon,” he said. “There were a lot of people who believed that the technology to carry people is safely at hand.”

The dream ... How Virgin Galactic promoted its SpaceShipTwo flights. Picture: Supplied

Offering his sympathies to Virgin Galactic, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said that the pain of the tragedy would be “felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploration”.

“Space flight is incredibly difficult, and we commend the passion of all in the space community who take on risk to push the boundaries of human achievement,” Mr Bolden said.

The private space travel industry had received a big boost earlier this year, with Space X and Boeing landing contracts to transport US astronauts to the International Space Station.

The private operators were due to commence flights in 2017, in a move which would end NASA’s expensive reliance on Russia to transport its astronaturs to the station. Russia charges the USA $US71 million for each astronaut it transports.

The space tourism industry had focused on low-level orbit flights which would give occupants a view of the curve of the earth and included up to five minutes of weightlessness.

Before the disaster ... The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separates from its carrier aircraft. Picture: AP Photo/Kenneth Brown

Hollywood celebrities including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Ashton Kutcher and Tom Hanks are among the 800 people who have paid the US$250,000 deposit to be part of a Virgin Galactic low-orbit flight.

In May Titanic star DiCaprio auctioned off an invitation to join him on a trip with him into space, raising 700,000 euros (US$876,000).

The accident has not deterred some proponents of space tourism.

Former NASA space scientist Alan Stern has a ticket to fly on Virgin Galactic - and its competitor XCOR aerospace. He isn’t rethinking plans to fly in space at all.

“Let’s not be Chicken Littles here,” said Stern, now a vice president at Southwest Research Institute. “The birth of aviation was also a very dangerous time period.”

“All forms of transportation carry risk,” he said. “To expect spaceflight could somehow be different is unrealistic on the part of the public or anyone. Secondly to do something very hard, to do something on the frontier, comes with risk.”

Former NASA astronaut Jerry Linenger, who nearly died in a 1997 fire aboard the Russian space station Mir, said when he first met British billionaire Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, he told him the first thing he’d have to worry about is liability insurance.

“You will have setbacks,” Linenger said he told Branson. “That is a reality.”

Originally published as SpaceShipTwo crash: is this the end for Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic dream?