A team of about 15 investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board began its inquiry Saturday into the crash of a Virgin Galactic space plane Friday in the Mojave Desert.
Richard Branson, the billionaire entrepreneur who started Virgin Galactic with the goal of taking tourists on short flights into space, also arrived at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California, where the space plane, SpaceShipTwo, disintegrated during a test flight Friday morning, killing one pilot and leaving the other severely injured.
"We are determined to find out what went wrong," Branson said during a news conference at the spaceport Saturday morning.
Scaled Composites, the company that designed and built SpaceShipTwo, identified the crew member who died as Michael Alsbury, 39, co-pilot on the flight.
The pilot, who survived by parachuting from the doomed space plane, is Peter Siebold, 43. He was badly injured and is to undergo surgery.
"He is alert and talking with his family and doctors," Scaled Composites said in a statement Saturday.
During Friday morning's test, SpaceShipTwo was carried by a larger plane to an altitude of about 45,000 feet before being released. Soon after the space plane's motor ignited, something went wrong. The plane fell to the ground in pieces about 20 miles northeast of Mojave. This was the first test of the plane using a new motor.
More than 700 people, including celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, Tom Hanks and Katy Perry, have reserved seats on Virgin Galactic. The price of a ticket is $250,000.
"We do understand the risks involved, and we are not going to push on blindly," Branson said. "To do so would be an insult to all those affected by this tragedy. We're going to learn from what went wrong, discover how we can improve safety and performance, and then move forward together."
"Of course, anyone who ever wants a refund will get a refund," Branson said.
Branson said that on Friday one new customer signed up for a flight after news of the crash, to show support for the company.
He said the company had not spent any of the $80 million it has collected in deposits. Instead, the money "gave us the confidence to do the program, because these people were so committed," Branson said.
This is the second time tragedy has struck the spaceport in connection with Scaled Composites; in July 2007, three people died when a rocket system test went awry.
The start of commercial flights, already years later than Branson had desired, will be delayed again; in September, he expressed hope that flights would begin next spring. A second space plane is under construction.
More crucially, Virgin Galactic faces a difficult decision about the motor to power the next SpaceShipTwo. While the investigation has just begun, the new motor is a prime suspect as the cause of the accident. The company could stick with a design that may have destroyed one craft. Or it could go back to a design that successfully powered three flights, but that caused vibration problems and may not provide enough thrust to propel the space plane to the 62-mile-high altitude that is generally considered the edge of space - there, passengers would experience a few moments of weightlessness.
The manufacturer of the earlier motor, Sierra Nevada Corp., said in a statement Friday that it had no involvement with the new SpaceShipTwo motor.
A third option would be switch to a new engine design, a prospect that could take years of development and testing.
That uncertainty, of course, makes for a longer wait for the company's customers, some of whom may now be wondering if they still want to spend $250,000 on a ride that could be fatal.
When asked about Virgin Galactic's future, Branson paused seven long seconds before finally answering, "We would love to finish what we started some years ago."
He added, "In the early days of aviation, there were incidents, and then aviation became very safe."
At the end of the news conference, a reporter asked Branson if he still planned to be a passenger on the first operational flight. He gave a quick nod yes.
© 2014, The New York Times News Service