Branson promised to be the first space tourist on his own ship

Not so long ago, very sad news was published here that the tests of the SpaceShipTwo spacecraft ended in a catastrophe, in which one pilot was killed, and the second one was seriously injured. This accident can be a very serious obstacle for Virgin to become a space tourism operator as a company.

True, Richard Branson, the head of Virgin, has already said that the accident will not affect the implementation of the plans, especially since investors continue to support the project. In addition, Branson also promised to be the first person to travel to space on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft. Richard himself doesn’t throw words to the wind - for example, having lost a bet to his rival, he went on a competitor’s flight as an ordinary flight attendant (yes, history has already been mentioned many times, but still).
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Going into space as a test tourist is not a flight attendant changing your clothes, but you can be sure that Branson will keep his promise. Of course, if nothing prevents to develop a spacecraft, which will fly into orbit.

Now there are trials, experts are looking for the causes of the disaster SpaceShipTwo. Let us hope that the cause or causes that led to the catastrophe will be found and eliminated, and the space tourists will soon set out to plow the expanses of the universe into the orbit of our planet. And I would like to hope that a man will install a monument on Mars and other planets, after their colonization, a monument to the dead astronauts (who died not only in this catastrophe, but also all previous ones).

And space tourism is the first step towards space exploration.

Via cnn