--- title: Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash: Richard Branson Promises Answers description: Billionaire Richard Branson promised Saturday that he would find out what caused one of his Virgin Galactic commercial spaceships to crash canonical: https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/ author: Dan Hirschhorn article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-01T18:12:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-14T00:58:37.000Z article:section: Science og:title: Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash: Richard Branson Promises Answers og:description: Billionaire Richard Branson promised Saturday that he would find out what caused one of his Virgin Galactic commercial spaceships to crash og:url: https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde17de45b0c4642a/698763d535ba6f36a6c04c64/c1f82340566f4bf68a2b0a28d8cec905-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Richard Branson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash: Richard Branson Promises Answers twitter:description: Billionaire Richard Branson promised Saturday that he would find out what caused one of his Virgin Galactic commercial spaceships to crash twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde17de45b0c4642a/698763d535ba6f36a6c04c64/c1f82340566f4bf68a2b0a28d8cec905-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Branson Promises Answers on Spaceship Crash That Killed 1 > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=be9c435e-0a05-4050-8681-bff41d7f13bb&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: How Richard Branson Made His First Million [Watch (HLS stream): How Richard Branson Made His First Million](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FwF1ezuQ.m3u8) (2:04)  _Published 2014-07-30. Richard Branson journey to a million started from an unlikely source: The Exorcist._ by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:58 AM UTCPublished: Nov 1, 2014 6:12 PM UTC Branson Remarks on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash by [Dan Hirschhorn](https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:58 AM UTCPublished: Nov 1, 2014 6:12 PM UTC Billionaire [Richard Branson](http://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/) [promised](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8fa2495c42994d47b4433fff284757d1/investigators-branson-go-spacecraft-crash-site) Saturday that he would find out what caused one of his [Virgin Galactic commercial spaceships to crash Friday, in an accident](http://time.com/3551651/virgin-galactic-crash/) that killed one pilot and seriously injured another. “We are determined to find out what went wrong,” Branson said at the California facility where the spacecraft was developed. **MORE:** [Enough with amateur-hour space flight](http://time.com/3551643/virgin-crash-branson-amateur/) Branson, the bombastic mogul who also owns airlines, a wireless brand and many other businesses, has long been at the forefront of efforts to charge wealthy tourists a hefty sum for even a brief moment to enjoy the weightlessness and view of Earth from space. But the commercial space industry is facing [tough](http://time.com/3551643/virgin-crash-branson-amateur/) [questions](http://time.com/3552499/virgin-galactic-crash-orbital-sciences-antares/) after two accidents in one week: [the crash of Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo](http://time.com/3551651/virgin-galactic-crash/) on Friday and the [explosion of the unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket](http://time.com/3544717/nasas-antares-rocket-explodes-during-take-off/) on Tuesday. Branson didn’t provide any new details about the accident on Saturday. Officials from the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating. Branson said safety will always come first. “We’re not going to push on blindly,” he said. “We’re going to learn from what went wrong. “We’ve always known that commercial space travel is an incredibly hard project,” he added. “We’ve been undertaking a comprehensive testing program for many years, and safety has always been our No. 1 priority.” ## Transcript [00:00] [ MUSIC ] [00:04] Richard Branson has proved that a businessman can [00:07] make a lot of money and have fun while doing it. [00:11] Branson is founder and chairman of Virgin Group which [00:14] runs airlines, telecom companies, financial services [00:18] companies. Health club, travel agencies, wine [00:22] stores. It's even launched a business to take people [00:25] into outer space. Five seconds to go, unlocking. Alright. [00:27] [ UNKNOWN ] [00:31] Branson is worth an estimated $ 5 billion, a fortune [00:35] that has enabled him to indulge in expensive hobbies. [00:38] [ MUSIC ] And fund humanitarian initiatives. But [00:42] how did he make his first million? Believe it or not, [00:45] there's a connection to the 1973 horror film The [00:48] Exorcist. The Holy Spirit. Damien. Back [00:54] in the early 1970s. Branson, then in his 20s, was [00:58] already an entrepreneur. In the future, we'll be able to [01:01] talk to each other with our with our thumbs! Born and [01:04] raised in London, Branson had launched a magazine, a [01:08] counselling service, a mail- order record business, and [01:11] a chain of music stores. He and his partner dreamed [01:14] of starting a record label. And in 1973, they released [01:18] their first four albums. Three of them sold well enough. [01:22] But the fourth, by an unknown position named Mike [01:26] Oldfield, was a massive hit, Tubular Bells. [01:33] The album sold millions of copies and went on the [01:35] soundtrack for The Exorcist. The Exorcist. One of the [01:38] top grossing movies of the year. The success of [01:41] Tubular Bells kick started the Virgin music label. God [01:43] save the queen. Which Branson [01:47] sold in 1992 for nearly a billion dollars. And [01:52] as Branson wrote in his autobiography, his gamble on [01:55] Tubular Bells, quote, made us our first fortune. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/"},"headline":"Branson Promises Answers on Spaceship Crash That Killed 1","datePublished":"2014-11-01T18:12:25.000Z","dateModified":"2023-12-14T00:58:37.000Z","description":"\"We're not going to push on blindly\"","url":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","keywords":["Space","Virgin Galactic","Richard Branson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde17de45b0c4642a/698763d535ba6f36a6c04c64/c1f82340566f4bf68a2b0a28d8cec905-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Dan Hirschhorn","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/dan-hirschhorn/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde17de45b0c4642a/698763d535ba6f36a6c04c64/c1f82340566f4bf68a2b0a28d8cec905-0.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Richard Branson","caption":"Richard Branson","creditText":"Brian Melley—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","name":"Branson Promises Answers on Spaceship Crash That Killed 1"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Branson Remarks on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash","description":"Branson Remarks on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crash","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/4NQurxvE/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-01T18:23:53.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/4NQurxvE.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","duration":"PT22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"What The Virgin Galactic Crash Means For Space Tourism","description":"The fatal crash of a Virgin Galactic spacecraft has some industry watchers predicting a major setback for the space tourism industry.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/5qpm1Vxp/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-01T14:37:41.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/5qpm1Vxp.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","duration":"PT1M25S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Richard Branson Made His First Million","description":"Richard Branson journey to a million started from an unlikely source: The Exorcist.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/FwF1ezuQ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-30T20:16:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FwF1ezuQ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/","duration":"PT2M4S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3552572/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-spaceship-crash/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```