Branson vows to push ahead with space tourism after fatal rocket crash Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Galactic, and Burt Rutan chief executive of Scaled Composites unveil the design of the SpaceshipTwo and the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft in January 2008 SpaceShipTwo as it glides toward Earth on its first test flight in October 2010 SpaceShipTwo completes its successful first glide flight at Mojave in California in October 2010 Sir Richard Branson with his Virgin Galactic spacecraft at the Farnborough International Airshow in July 2012 Pilot Mike Alsbury was reportedly killed in the Virgin SpaceShipTwo crash. Here, Clint Nichols, Mike Alsbury, Brian Maisler, Mark Stuckey and Dave McKay, crew of WhiteKnightTwo and SpaceShipTwo, walk towards the aircraft for the first rocket powered flight in April 2013 Moments away from disaster, SpaceShipTwo flies above the Mojave Desert after launching from the carrier aircraft on October 31 The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket explodes in mid-air In this image from video by KABC-TV Los Angeles, a rescue crew carries a person on a stretcher to a helicopter near the scene of the crash Debris at the scene of the crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, speaks in at a news conference after the crash Sheriff deputies keep watch over wreckage in the desert near Cantil, California Officials work overnight at the scene of the crash Members of the National Transportation Safety Board arrive before dawn on November 1 at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California Acting chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board Christopher Hart tells reporters investigators were entering unknown territory but hoped to find clues to the accident in data gathered by Virgin Galactic "We owe it to our test pilots to find out exactly what went wrong, and once we've found out what went wrong, if we can overcome it, we'll make absolutely certain that the dream lives on," Sir Richard Branson tells reporters at the Mojave Air and Space Port Sir Richard Branson has vowed to press ahead with his plans to become the first space tourism operator, despite Friday's fatal crash of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo which killed one of the test pilots and left a second seriously injured. "We would love to finish what we started some years ago and I think pretty well all our astronauts would love us to finish and would love to go into space," the British entrepreneur said after arriving at the Mojave Desert crash site in California on Saturday. We owe it to our test pilots to find out exactly what went wrong and once we have found out what went wrong, if we can overcome it, we will make absolutely certain the dream lives on. He likened the developing field of commercial space flight to the early days of aviation. "There were incidents and then aviation became very safe," he said. In the early days of commercial space travel there have been incidents and then, we hope, that one day the test pilots will enable people to go into space safely and that is our wish and desire. Accident investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board also arrived at the crash site on Saturday, the first time the federal agency has taken the lead in investigating a fatal space launch. Authorities named the pilot killed during the test flight as Michael Tyner Alsbury, 39, of Tehachapi, California. The pilot who survived the crash has not been identified. The rocket came down over California's Mojave Desert on Friday after suffering what the company called a "serious anomaly" during a test flight conducted by its partner Scaled Composites, part of Northrop Grumman. Photographs over the weekend showed the spacecraft initially firing its rockets after separating from WhiteKnightTwo, the aircraft that carries it to 50,000 feet, then disappearing and breaking up in an apparent explosion. The crash, the first fatal accident involving a privately operated spacecraft, took place on only SpaceShipTwo's fourth powered test flight. It was the first test flight since January and the first to use a new, plastics-based fuel. "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," Sir Richard wrote on his website. Space is hard - but worth it. We will persevere and move forward together. The incident comes only months before Virgin Galactic had planned to start commercial flights to just outside the earth's atmosphere. It throws into disarray Sir Richard's plans to carry paying passengers into space. The craft was lost only two minutes after separating from WhiteKnightTwo, according to Stuart Witt, chief executive of the Mojave Air and Space Port. The craft had taken off from the port at 9.20am local time and separated from the mother aircraft at 10.10am, he said. "At approximately 10.12am, we became aware of an in-flight anomaly and implemented our pre-planned response plan," Mr Witt said. We do know that one of the crew members was met by emergency responders. We also know that we had one fatality. George Whitesides, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, pledged to co-operate with investigators into the cause of the crash. "We believe we owe it to the folks who were flying these vehicles - as well as the folks who have been working so hard - eventually to understand this and move forward, which is what we will do," he said. The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates rail and air crashes, said it was sending a team to the site. The crash comes only three days after an unmanned rocket being operated by another commercial space operator, Orbital Sciences, crashed on launch in Virginia. The crash took place after publication of a Lunch with the FT interview with Sir Richard, in which he outlined his hope that Virgin Galactic would become his group's "flagship company" and have "a halo effect" on the rest of his business, which ranges from airlines to financial services. Sir Richard and his son Sam had planned to be on Virgin Galactic's first official flight in March 2015. Together with Abu Dhabi's Aabar Investments, Virgin had budgeted an investment of about $500m. Virgin Galactic aims to become the first provider of flights for commercial space tourism. It launched in 2004 with the intention of taking paying customers into space by 2007. However, a series of financial and technical setbacks, including an explosion during ground testing of an engine in 2007 that killed three people, pushed back the date of the first commercial flight. Virgin Galactic suspended bookings for the $250,000 flights - for which about 700 people had paid deposits - on Friday evening, replacing the booking site with a page confirming the crash. Sir Richard said anyone who wanted a refund would get one. The SpaceShipTwo craft is designed to be carried into the upper atmosphere on WhiteKnightTwo, a carrier aircraft, before igniting its rocket engines to head briefly outside the earth's atmosphere. WhiteKnightTwo returned safely to earth after releasing SpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic said. Kevin Mickey, chief executive of Scaled Composites, which built SpaceShipTwo and operated Friday's flight on Virgin Galactic's behalf, played down the significance of the fuel change. After it was put to him that the fuel change meant the motor was significantly different from that used in the craft's last powered flight in January, Mr Mickey said: "A small nuance in the rocket motor design is the fuel of the motor." SpaceShipTwo builds on technology that in 2004 won the $10m Ansari X-Prize by sending a three-person manned space vehicle 100km into space twice within two weeks.