Sir Richard Branson has vowed to carry on with his attempt to reach space following the disastrous explosion of his £350 million aircraft on a test flight.
The billionaire is due to arrive in California’s Mojave desert on Saturday to see the wreckage of the experimental plane he hoped would take him, his family, and paying customers, beyond Earth’s atmosphere.
Writing on his website while en route, Sir Richard said it was “one of the most difficult trips I have ever had to make”. He said: “Space is hard - but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together. All our thoughts are with the families of everyone affected by this tragic event, and we are doing everything we can to support them.”
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShip Two came apart at an altitude of 45,000ft and crashed in three pieces 25 miles north of Mojave Air and
The ship had been released from its carrier aircraft White Knight Two at 10.10am. Two minutes later controllers became aware of what they initially described as an “anomaly”.
Doug Messier, a magazine editor, said SpaceShip Two’s engine sputtered after it was released by White Knight Two, “It looked like the engine didn’t perform properly. Normally it would burn and it would burn for a certain period of time. It looked like it may have started and then stopped and then started again,” he said, “We drove out and found one of the debris areas, it had hit the edge of the road. There were pieces of the wreckage and pieces of debris on the road, and also in the brush all around.”
In May Virgin Galactic announced it was switching to a polymide-based fuel - a type of thermoplastic - from a type of rubber called HTPB. More than 500 people have already reserved seats on Virgin Galactic, which is selling tickets at $250,000 each for a suborbital flight.
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