Richard Branson: Space is hard but worth it

Richard Branson says he is on his way to the SpaceShipTwo crash site to uncover what went wrong in the moments before his aircraft crashed in the desert killing one of the two pilots on board.

SpaceShipTwo, the flagship aircraft of Branson's Virgin Galactic spaceflight company, exploded during a test flight after one of its rockets ignited. The co-pilot managed to eject whilst the pilot died on impact. The co-pilot was airlifted and remains in a serious condition.

• Virgin Galactic spaceship crashes

The space company is part of Branson's Virgin Group which plans to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists, suborbital launches for space science missions, and orbital launches of small satellites.

Shortly after news of the crash emerged Branson sent a tweet thanking people for their support.

Whilst on a plane en route to the crash site, Branson released a statement saying that it "was one of the most difficult trips" he had "ever had to make" and that he was on his way to "join the Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composite teams involved in the SpaceShipTwo flight test program" in the Mojave desert.

Branson's team, which have worked tirelessly since 2008 to achieve his dream of commercial space travel, he described as "dedicated and hard-working people" who are "in shock at this devastating loss."

He said: "Everyone at Virgin Galactic, The Spaceship Company and Scaled Composites is deeply saddened by today’s events. All our thoughts are with the families of everyone affected by this tragic event, and we are doing everything we can to support them."

"We will cooperate fully with all the authorities involved in the investigation, and share more information when possible. For now, I want to reiterate our thanks to everyone from within the space community and beyond who has sent their overwhelming messages of love and support."

Scaled Composites president Kevin Mickey told a news conference the ill-fated flight was the first to use a new rocket fuel formula which the company switched to in May.

Stuart Witt, chief executive of the space port, said officials were not ready to "speculate on the cause" of the crash.

However, he said the first sign of a malfunction came 90 seconds to two minutes after the carrier jet released the spacecraft.

"There's usually a certain cadence, and you see things occurring, and the thing makes a contrail and the like," he said.

"Because of the very light cirrus clouds, I was eyes on, but I didn't see any anomaly. In fact it was when I wasn't hearing anything that I became concerned. And I looked over at my colleague, and then there was a radio call, something about a chute."

In his statement Branson said that while not a NASA mission, "the pain of this tragedy will be felt by all the men and women who have devoted their lives to exploration". He mentioned the difficulty of space flight and the risks his team take to push "the boundaries of human achievement.”

Upon launch and prior to the crash it was the 55th time SpaceShipTwo had flown. For the WhiteKnightTwo, the mother ship responsible for taking SpaceShipTwo part of its journey up into the atmosphere, it was her 173rd flight.

It was the 35th time SpaceShipTwo had flown freely. Branson says that the testing program also included "extensive ground testing of all parts of the spaceship" but alluded to the difficulty of being able to ensure complete security in test flights.

"We’ve always known that the road to space is extremely difficult and that every new transportation system has to deal with bad days early in their history" he said.

"Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides summed up this spirit in the company by saying: 'we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles, as well as those who’ve been working so hard on them, to understand this and to move forward' And that is what we’ll do.”

Branson finished his statement with: "Space is hard - but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together."