The risk is worth it.
— Richard Branson, Virgin Galactic founder, on the pursuit of space tourism, despite the fatal crash Friday of his company s SpaceShipTwo during a test flight. Branson said Michael Alsbury, the co-pilot who died in the crash, would have been the first to say that.
But was it really worth it? Adam Rogers writes for Wired that there s a big difference between what Virgin Galactic is doing — charging potential space tourists $250,000 each to experience new heights — and other efforts to explore and study space. He cites the work SpaceX and Orbital Sciences are doing, which includes transporting cargo to space. (Also last week, an unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket exploded after liftoff.)
Of the SpaceShipTwo crash, Rogers writes: When various corporate representatives eulogize those two pilots as pioneers who were helping to cross the Final Frontier, that should make you angry. That pilot died not for space but for a luxury service provider. His death doesn t get us closer to Mars; it keeps rich people further away from weightlessness and a beautiful view.
What do the two recent crashes mean for the private space industry? Gut reaction, this is a major setback, said James Pura, president of the non-profit Space Frontier Foundation, which advocates more space exploration, according to Fortune. A lot of our hopes and dreams in the private commercial space industry lie in the success of the leading companies, and Virgin Galactic is one of those.
Photo: Richard Branson during a news conference at the Mojave Air and Space Port on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2014, in Mojave Desert, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times/MCT)
