--- description: Fatal crash made billionaire founder question whether it's "really worth it." title: Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52121212e6ced5a7/6987780b428a9eb665cc65fe/richard-branson-virgin-galactic.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 # Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 5, 2015 12:12 PM CUT  Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson speaks at a press conference after a Virgin Galactic test spacecraft crashed, at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. on Nov. 1, 2014. Virgin founder Sir Richard Branson speaks at a press conference after a Virgin Galactic test spacecraft crashed, at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, Calif. on Nov. 1, 2014.Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images by [NBC News](/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 5, 2015 12:12 PM CUT In a [New Year’s blog posting](http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/reflections-on-virgin-galactic "undefined"), Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson says October’s [fatal breakup of the SpaceShipTwo rocket plane](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/virgin-galactics-spaceshiptwo-crashes-1-dead-1-injured-n238376 "undefined") led him to question whether he should continue with his multimillion-dollar space travel venture. He said the Oct. 31 crash, which killed one test pilot and injured the other pilot, affected him deeply as he flew to California’s Mojave Air and Space Port in California to meet with the SpaceShipTwo team. “I found myself questioning seriously for the first time, whether in fact it was right to be backing the development of something that could result in such tragic circumstances. In short — was Virgin Galactic and everything it has stood for and dreamt of achieving, really worth it?”… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/virgin-voyage/how-richard-branson-almost-quit-virgin-galactic-why-he-didnt-n279411?cid=par-time-article%5F20150105 "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/"},"headline":"Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash","datePublished":"2015-01-05T12:12:23.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:16:03.963Z","description":"Fatal crash made billionaire founder question whether it's \"really worth it\"","url":"https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/","keywords":["Space"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52121212e6ced5a7/6987780b428a9eb665cc65fe/richard-branson-virgin-galactic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52121212e6ced5a7/6987780b428a9eb665cc65fe/richard-branson-virgin-galactic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Richard Branson Virgin Galactic","caption":"Richard Branson Virgin Galactic","creditText":"Josh Edelson—AFP/Getty Images","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/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/","name":"Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Richard Branson: The Risk of Space Tourism","description":"Richard Branson: The Risk of Space Tourism","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/sfa4wCWp/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-11-04T06:15:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sfa4wCWp.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/","duration":"PT22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```