--- title: Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash description: Fatal crash made billionaire founder question whether it's "really worth it." canonical: https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-05T12:12:23.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:07.390Z article:section: Science og:title: Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash og:description: Fatal crash made billionaire founder question whether it's "really worth it." og:url: https://time.com/3653358/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-crash/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52121212e6ced5a7/6987780b428a9eb665cc65fe/richard-branson-virgin-galactic.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 Virgin Galactic og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash twitter:description: Fatal crash made billionaire founder question whether it's "really worth it." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt52121212e6ced5a7/6987780b428a9eb665cc65fe/richard-branson-virgin-galactic.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Richard Branson Considered Scrapping Virgin Galactic After Crash > Sponsored content. 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It reaches 40,000 subscribers with a 34.2% open rate and a 2.1% click rate as of August 2026. #### 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. ## Video: Richard Branson: The Risk of Space Tourism [Watch (HLS stream): Richard Branson: The Risk of Space Tourism](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/sfa4wCWp.m3u8) (0:22)  _Published 2014-11-04. Richard Branson: The Risk of Space Tourism_ by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Jan 5, 2015 12:12 PM UTC  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](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Jan 5, 2015 12:12 PM UTC In a [New Year’s blog posting](http://www.virgin.com/richard-branson/reflections-on-virgin-galactic), 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) 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) ```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":"2026-08-04T08:00:07.390Z","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"}}] ```