--- title: Space Tourism: Richard Branson Says the Risk 'Is Worth It' description: The crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, killing co-pilot Michael Alsbury, does not deter the company’s founder Richard Branson. canonical: https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-04T07:22:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:12:04.579Z article:section: Science og:title: Branson: Space Tourism Worth the Risk og:description: He's confirmed that he will be the first passenger on Virgin Galactic’s maiden flight og:url: https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1d979d9b81739b/698763fa35ba6f515dc04c95/space-tourism_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Richard Branson og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Branson: Space Tourism Worth the Risk twitter:description: He's confirmed that he will be the first passenger on Virgin Galactic’s maiden flight twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1d979d9b81739b/698763fa35ba6f515dc04c95/space-tourism_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson Says the Risk of Space Tourism 'Is Worth It' by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Nov 4, 2014 7:22 AM UTC  Billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson salutes the bravery of test pilots, and vows to find out what caused the crash of his prototype space tourism rocket that killed one crew member and injured another during a news conference in Mojave, Calif., Nov. 1, 2014. Billionaire Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson salutes the bravery of test pilots, and vows to find out what caused the crash of his prototype space tourism rocket that killed one crew member and injured another during a news conference in Mojave, Calif., Nov. 1, 2014.Brian Melley—AP by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Nov 4, 2014 7:22 AM UTC Despite the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo during a test flight [Friday](http://time.com/3551651/virgin-galactic-crash/), killing co-pilot Michael Alsbury, the company’s founder Richard Branson [says](http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/technology/branson-spaceshiptwo-crash/index.html?iid=HP%5FRiver), “the risk is worth it.” “Mike would have been the first to say that,” Branson told CNN Monday. “Test pilots would say that because they know the risk they’re taking, they know the importance of what they’re doing, we know the importance of what we’re doing.” And the British entrepreneur confirmed that he would still be the first passenger on Virgin Galactic’s maiden space tourism flight. “There is no way I would ask others to go on a Virgin Galactic flight if I didn’t feel it was safe enough for myself,” he said. A spot on the flight will cost $250,000, and 800 passengers have already signed up to join Branson in becoming the world’s first space tourists. Branson said two more people [signed](http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/technology/branson-spaceshiptwo-crash/index.html?iid=HP%5FRiver) up Friday to support the program after the fatal crash. \[[_CNN_](http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/03/technology/branson-spaceshiptwo-crash/index.html?iid=HP%5FRiver)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/"},"headline":"Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson Says the Risk of Space Tourism 'Is Worth It'","datePublished":"2014-11-04T07:22:43.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:12:04.579Z","description":"And he's confirmed that he will be the first passenger on Virgin Galactic’s maiden flight","url":"https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/","keywords":["space travel","Death","Crash","Virgin Galactic","explosion","Richard Branson"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1d979d9b81739b/698763fa35ba6f515dc04c95/space-tourism_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltbb1d979d9b81739b/698763fa35ba6f515dc04c95/space-tourism_wong.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-travel/","name":"space travel"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3555737/virgin-galactic-richard-branson-space-tourism/","name":"Virgin Galactic's Richard Branson Says the Risk of Space Tourism 'Is Worth It'"}}]}] ```