--- description: Billionaire Richard Branson promised Saturday that he would find out what caused one of his Virgin Galactic commercial spaceships to crash title: Virgin Galactic Spaceship Crash: Richard Branson Promises Answers image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde17de45b0c4642a/698763d535ba6f36a6c04c64/c1f82340566f4bf68a2b0a28d8cec905-0.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Science](/section/science/) ## Science Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Space](/tag/space/) ## Space Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Branson Promises Answers on Spaceship Crash That Killed 1 by [Dan Hirschhorn](/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:58 AM CUTPublished: Nov 1, 2014 6:12 PM CUT  Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson speaks at a news conference in Mojave, Calif., Nov. 1, 2014. Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson speaks at a news conference in Mojave, Calif., Nov. 1, 2014.Brian Melley—AP by [Dan Hirschhorn](/author/dan-hirschhorn/) ## Dan Hirschhorn Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Updated: Dec 14, 2023 12:58 AM CUTPublished: Nov 1, 2014 6:12 PM CUT Billionaire [Richard Branson](http://time.com/3060414/how-i-made-my-first-million-richard-branson/ "undefined") [promised](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/8fa2495c42994d47b4433fff284757d1/investigators-branson-go-spacecraft-crash-site "undefined") 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/ "undefined") 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/ "undefined") 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/ "undefined") [questions](http://time.com/3552499/virgin-galactic-crash-orbital-sciences-antares/ "undefined") after two accidents in one week: [the crash of Virgin’s SpaceShipTwo](http://time.com/3551651/virgin-galactic-crash/ "undefined") on Friday and the [explosion of the unmanned Orbital Sciences Antares rocket](http://time.com/3544717/nasas-antares-rocket-explodes-during-take-off/ "undefined") 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.” ```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":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/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":"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"}}] ```