Virgin Galactic won't abandon space tourism idea despite spacecraft crash

Virgin Galactic executives have revealed that they will continue with their space tourism idea, despite its SpaceShipTwo spacecraft crashing in the Mojave Desert.

Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Group, who has excelled at marketing the dream of space travel for ordinary people, was very close to achieving it, with the first passengers scheduled for 2015, ITV News reported.

However, now investigators are trying to find the cause of the crash that killed one pilot and seriously injured another, though it is clear that soon after the spacecraft was released from its mothership and fired its rocket something went catastrophically wrong.

The immediate focus will be on the fuel mix because engineers have been experimenting with this in order to maximize the performance of the engines.

But now it is all in jeopardy, as and as potential passengers are left to ponder whether rocketry and space travel are simply inherently too risky for recreational flying.

Branson will be meeting and consoling the devastated Virgin Galactic team at the spaceport in the Mojave Desert.