Virgin CEO Richard Branson has been accused of attempting to distance himself and his company from the tragic accident in which a pilot was killed during a test flight of Virgin Galactic’s prototype space tourism rocket.
SpaceShipTwo crashed after suffering 'a serious anomaly' in the Mojave desert on Friday. Pilot Peter Siebold, 43, was able to parachute to safety, but co-pilot Michael Tyner Alsbury, 39, was killed.
Branson spoke to the media from the crash site on Saturday, but one prominent blogger has criticized the billionaire after he denied knowing one of the pilots involved and made a point of repeatedly describing them as employees of Scaled Composites, the company developing the spaceship for Virgin Galactic.
Billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson has been accused of attempting to distance himself from Friday’s tragic accident in which a pilot was killed during a test flight of a prototype rocket
Blogger Douglas Messier has quoted unnamed sources as describing Branson as ‘outrageous’ and accused him of trying to put the entire blame for the crash on Scaled Composites, who developed the spaceship for Virgin Galactic
A journalist reporting from the Mojave Air and Space Port has quoted unnamed sources as describing Branson as ‘outrageous’ and accused Branson of trying to put the entire blame for the crash on Scaled Composites.
‘Sources have called Branson's decision to try to put entire responsibility for doomed flight on Scaled Composites as outrageous,' tweeted Douglas Messier, who’s Parabolic Arc website reports on space tourism.
Messier, who witnessed Friday’s crash, also tweeted that while it was technically true that Scaled Composites had conducted Friday's flight test ‘previous flight tests [had been] billed as joint Virgin and Scaled efforts.
‘Now that it blew up, the responsibility is Scaled alone,’ he tweeted.
Past meeting: Branson said on Saturday that he had never met Alsbury, second left, even though the two can be seen talking and celebrating in this footage following a flight in April 2013
![In a flurry of tweets, Messier said that while it was technically true that Scaled Composites had conducted Friday's flight test ‘previous flight tests [had been] billed as joint Virgin and Scaled efforts'](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vECnnODl_kVtetXNLT5k0F3P0NPODqfktroXh1NIaDocCvsypuc9moafZ7a52bV9gdDJBZsDvkElrgia2KS-HwnQ8NSi1vsp5aEAJfmYnlmOGRu_7eBwNrecitdbFpGy_215PcdlEK_b3I7DGv3oMr5uyuACD_-ZSXi1t-jbDjDCrqJ96gJlkv4QsE=s0-d)
In a flurry of tweets, Messier said that while it was technically true that Scaled Composites had conducted Friday's flight test ‘previous flight tests [had been] billed as joint Virgin and Scaled efforts'
A video of SpaceShipTwo's first rocket-powered test flight from last year, available on YouTube, shows Branson posing for photographs with Alsbury, second right
Messier also took Branson to task over his initial denial that he did not know the pilots when a video of SpaceShipTwo's first rocket-powered test flight from last year, available on YouTube, showed him posing for photographs with Alsbury.
'Suddenly they are Scaled pilots who Branson denies knowing' tweeted Messier, who also claimed that Virgin had exerted a lot of pressure on Scaled Composites to fly with the new engine.
When asked on Saturday if he had ever met Alsbury, Branson said: ‘The pilot worked for Scaled and not for Virgin Galactic and I've actually, I haven't, I have never met him.’
In a blog post on Sunday he changed his response saying he was sad not to have known the 39-year-old.
‘Sadly, I did not know him - because he worked for Scaled Composites - but I had had the privilege of shaking his hand briefly after he'd co-piloted SpaceShipTwo's first powered flight and on that exciting morning in Mojave I had congratulated him on the achievement.’
In a blog post on Sunday, Sir Richard Branson said he was sad not to have known 39-year-old Michael Alsbury (above) who died in Friday's explosion
These images show the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separating from the carrier aircraft, left, prior to it exploding in the air, right, during a test flight on Friday
In the three-minute film Sir Richard introduces footage of SpaceShip Two reaching supersonic speed for the first time, also in Mojave, and is then seen applauding the successful test flight.
Writing on Sunday Sir Richard added: ‘Mike was an accomplished test pilot and had worked for Scaled Composites for 13 years.
‘Beyond his skills as a pilot - including 1600 hours of flight time in research aircraft built by his colleagues at Scaled - Mike was a dear friend and inspiring colleague to the many many friends he left behind.
‘My heart goes out to his parents, his wife and children, his sister and the rest of his family and friends.’
Of injured pilot Peter Siebold, 43, Sir Richard said: ‘I do have the privilege of knowing Pete Siebold, Scaled's injured test pilot.
Pete is Scaled's director of flight operations and among the incredibly dedicated and talented team helping to realize so many people's dreams of reaching space. We all wish him a speedy recovery.’
Branson has also been criticized by Time magazine.
'But it’s hard too not to be angry, even disgusted, with Branson himself,' writes Jeffrey Kluger in an editorial piece. 'He is, as today’s tragedy shows, a man driven by too much hubris, too much hucksterism and too little knowledge of the head-crackingly complex business of engineering.'
Mail Online has reached out to Virgin Galactic for comment on Messier's tweets.
In the three-minute film Sir Richard introduces footage of SpaceShip Two reaching supersonic speed for the first time in April 2013 and is then seen applauding Alsbury
Branson has promised to find out what caused the crash of his Virgin Galactic prototype space tourism rocket that killed a test pilot, but federal investigators are cautioning that it may take up to a year to learn exactly what went wrong.
The crash in the California desert has almost certainly dashed Branson's goal of starting suborbital flight next spring, but the mogul said that while he remained committed to civilian space travel ‘we are not going to push on blindly.’
‘Yesterday, we fell short,’ said Branson on Saturday at the Mojave Air and Space Port. ‘We'll now comprehensively assess the results of the crash and are determined to learn from this and move forward.’
He asserted that safety has always been the top priority of the program that envisions taking wealthy tourists six at a time to the edge of space for a brief experience of weightlessness and a view of Earth below.
Scaled Composite said Alsbury was the co-pilot for the test flight. Siebold, who was piloting SpaceShipTwo, ‘is alert and talking with his family and doctors,’ the company said in a statement.
A former colleague said Alsbury was a ‘home-schooled, home-brewed’ pilot who earned his way up through the ranks at the company, starting as an engineer. Alsbury had also put himself through commercial pilot school and was certified as a flight instructor.
‘Mike loved what he did. I think his career ended with him doing exactly that. ... That yesterday ended up in a tragedy was kind of heart-breaking for many of us,’ said Brian Binnie, another test pilot who worked at Scaled Composites for 14 years before leaving the company this year.
The crash in the California desert has almost certainly dashed Branson's goal of starting suborbital flight next spring, but the mogul said that while he remained committed to civilian space travel 'we are not going to push on blindly'
Staff of Virgin Galactic stand guard outside the company's facilities at Mojave Air and Space Port after Friday's crash
National Transportation Safety Board Acting Chairman Christopher A. Hart said investigators don't yet know how Siebold got out of the rocket ship because they haven't had a chance to interview him. He said they found an undeployed parachute at the crash site,
He said a 5-mile path of debris over an area of uninhabited desert indicates the spacecraft broke up in flight. Learning where spacecraft parts fell will help investigators determine when and how the breakup occurred.
‘This will be the first time we have been in the lead of a space launch (accident) that involved persons onboard,’ said Hart, noting that the NTSB did participate in investigations of the Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters.
Hart said test flights are usually well-documented. Investigators will review video from multiple cameras that were on the spaceship, on the mother ship, on a chase aircraft and at nearby Edwards Air Force Base.
They also have six ‘nonvolatile’ sources of information from the aircraft, and radar data to sift through, he said.
The investigation could take up to 12 months to complete, he said.
A tank, part of wreckage lies near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, California, on Friday
Billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson, left, and George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic, comment on the crash of their prototype space tourism rocket, that killed one crew member and injured another during Saturday's news conference
Virgin Galactic - owned by Branson's Virgin Group and Aabar Investments PJS of Abu Dhabi - plans to fly passengers to altitudes more than 62 miles above Earth. The company sells seats on each prospective journey for $250,000.
The company says that ‘future astronauts,’ as it calls customers, include Stephen Hawking, Justin Bieber, Ashton Kutcher and Russell Brand. The company reports receiving $90 million from about 700 prospective passengers.
On Saturday, Branson said none of that money has been spent and that anyone who wanted a refund could get it. However, he said, no one has asked, and instead someone signed up on the day of the accident in a show of support.
At 60 feet long, SpaceShipTwo featured two large windows for each of up to six passengers, one on the side and one overhead. Branson once envisioned operating flights by 2007. Last month, he talked about the first flight being next spring with his son.
Friday's flight marked the 55th for SpaceShipTwo, which was intended to be the first of a fleet of craft. This was only the fourth flight to include a brief rocket firing. The rocket fires after the spacecraft is released from the underside of a larger carrying plane. During other flights, the craft either was not released from its mother ship or functioned as a glider after release.
The spacecraft broke up after being released from a carrier aircraft at high altitude, according to Ken Brown, a photographer who witnessed the accident.
SpaceShipTwo is based on aerospace design maverick Burt Rutan's award-winning SpaceShipOne prototype, which became the first privately financed manned rocket to reach space in 2004. Three people died in a blast at the Mojave Air and Space Port in 2007 while testing a rocket motor for SpaceShipTwo.
0 comments:
Post a Comment