A major setback nor the commercial space industry, tonight, after a spaceship collapsed in the desert. One died, other was taken to hospital with serious injuries. No word what caused the disaster with debris scattered across the desert. The accident happened 95 miles north of los angeles, aboard spaceship two. The craft was developed for virgin, virgin says the vehicle suffered a serious anomaly but gave no details. Virgin said it would work closely with authorities to discover the anomaly. Virgin boss Richard Branson tweeted hes also flying to california. The vehicle that crashed today evolved from this, spaceship 1 which won the ansari x price for becoming the first privately owned manned spacecraft to fly into space. Many have paid 250,000 deposits to fly on spacecraft 2, carried by virgins white knight 2 care crer jet and then released. The subor bitter will carry it to 62 miles or 100 kilometers above earth. Giving are travelers a brief view. On tuesday, an unmanned space craforspacecraft explode after g launched from virginia. What do you know about the investigation into the crash . The investigation will not get underway until sometime late tomorrow morning. We know the area has been secured, we know there is debris over a wide area. According to those officials who have been at the spacecraft, the number of pieces it was at 45,000 feet when this happened, with this explosion occurred after they tried to turn on the rocket engine. So the ntsb will be the lead investigation agency, assisted by faa, i wouldnt be surprised if nasa was involved, and also the folks who made and operated the craft, trying to figure out what went wrong. Bass there is no commercial passenger flight industry yet, this is a test flight, not there yet, Richard Branson was hoping it would be this fall, obviously thats not going to happen. Who are the regulatory bodies here . Obviously the ntsb is heading in. Obviously the faa doesnt regulate this industry yet. They do have some power over it to some extent. They have to folks that are doing this have to assure to the faa that there will be no injuries on the ground. I mean they have to show that the test pilots have to show theyre in a Risky Business and the faa does have some oversight over this Risky Business, some already have contracts with nasa and so there is government oversight on these commercial space interviews which are really developing to stay the place of what was long a government operation. Thats right. Lisa stark, thank you for your reporting, well continue to check in with. Lisa mentions the test pilots do have to acknowledge what a dangerous position theyre in. Later on in the show ill speak to a couple of people who went into space as private astronauts, weve got a full show where we will break this down and describe it all to you. But for now we are in investigation mode. The National Transportation safety board has launched a goteam to investigate. Under the faa, the ntsb is leading the accident investigation with the faa support. The faa is responsible for investigation, and as i mentioned, this is the second serious accident in the last week. Debra hirschman is the former chairman of the ntsb. What a new industry, debra, thank you for being with us. We put a man on the moon in 1969 but this is not the type of thing when you were at the ntsb that you would typically deal with. Obviously you had protocols in place. What is supposed to happen when a spaceship crashes . The good news is, there are a lot of people who have thought long and hard about what should be done, and many tickets have been sold on these planes. There are agreements, nasa, faa and ntsb have worked closely to understand, if there is a mishap, who is responsible, who is in charge. Break that down for me, who is liecialg responsible in this case . Likely responsible in this case . The ntsb is going to lead the investigation, their goteam is headed out there and they will conduct this very much like a commercial aircraft investigation. Theyre going to be following exactly the same protocols, establishing the investigation and making sure that evidence is going to be secured and that evidence is probably going to be significant digital evidence when you talk about instrumentation, video, audio data thats streaming from this aircraft, theres probably a quite a lot of that that theyre going to want to get hold of. When the commercial Airline Industry wasnt developed under those issues, but the space industry is designed with that in mind. Digitally, they are going to have regulators, how do we best do that . Is it going to be regulated better than the days of commercial air flight . Absolutely. The one thing regulators have a hard time to keep up with is the pace. The regulations didnt anticipate, and so i will say that there are situations that investigators are going to be facing, when it comes to this investigation, that will probably be new for them. But they do have standard procedures and practices over the years. They have investigated test flight crashes that involve aircraft, new aircraft design and so this will be one that will probably follow some of those similar protocols when it comes to test flight and the unknown. Tell me a little bit about the relationship that exists between the investigating bodies, the regulatory bodies like the ntsb and the faa and the commercial space industry. How would you describe them . Are they good . I know the commercial space industry had really asked the faa please hold off on regulating us until we have sort of gotten to a point where were ready for it. But is that a Good Relationship . Well, i think theres two sides to every coin. There is the side that says really dont inhibit innovation, allow the protocols to be developed without them being fettered. And then theres another side to the coin about being conservative and making sure you look at every risk and not just every risk but the operation or the pilot chattanooga choosing to take the risk but the ground. There is always a lot of push and pull in these environments and everybody is trying to achieve a balancing act. This week with the antares and this event involving clac galactic, its a new frontier and space is something we have to risk going there. Debra hirschman, thank you for being here. Ill talk coming up to michael allegria, experienced major problems on the International Space station. Youll hear from him next. Youre watching real money. These people have decided that today they will be arrested i know that im being surveilled people are not getting the care that they need this is a crime against humanity hands up dont shoot hands up dont shoot what do we want . Justice when do we want it . Now they are running towards base. Explosions going off were not quite sure. Fault lines Al Jazeera Americas emmy winning, investigative, documentary, series. Virgin galactic was on a test flight when it crashed into the Mojave Desert, you just heard my conversation with debra hirschman and just a while ago i spoke to Michael Lopez allegria. Its good to talk to you, i wish it were not under these circumstances. Thats mostly right, the commercial space crafl spacecraft federation some part of that is to allow them to innovate freely and the fear is if there is regulation imposed before theres enough data gathered about what that regulation should look like then innovation. There is there is an ability in fact a clause that says that should there be a fatality or serious accident, that the faa can step in and insert some regulation. And i would expect that something along those lines will be forthcoming. Well, lets just think about this. We never want these things to happen but in fact most test flights of everything, all the planes weve ever flown on, all the military jets, occur without incident. As both an astronaut, and a test pilot, do you get in, knowing that this kind of thing can happen . Well, i mean sure. I think both at nasa and in the navy, you know, they spend a lot of time and effort trying to understand what the risks are and mitigate those risks to the best point we can. And the people at Virgin Galactic are no different. This kind of thing unfortunately tragically happens, and now its a matter of figuring out what went wrong correcting the problem and moving forward. We spoke to the former head of the ntsb a few moments ago. They will be investigating this accident. The faa as you said will something. What is your sense, when you were talking to the faa was there a sense that they said you know what, the commercial industry will figure this out, theyll get it right, whether or not there are accidents, or is there some sense that theyll come in now and set down some regulations that will set the commercial space industry back a little bit . My sense is that we enjoy a very positive relationship with our regulator, probably more so than most industries would say and part of that is because the commercial space launch amendments act which gives us authority to regulate, gives us additional responsibility to not just oversee but to encourage, facilitate and promote the industry. So in that vein they have been very supportive and very understanding about our desire to innovate as much as possible. That said, i think there will be some pressure, externally applied pressure, from, potentially from congress that you know will try to find blame and you know unfortunately that sort of thing is a normal and visceral but in this point in this case inappropriate reaction. But you know when you combine todays event with orbital explosion, what is your view . Will this be behind us or is this a setback . Well i mean there is no doubt, this is a big deal. Its been a hell of a week. But however, i do think there is the savoir faire, the will the Technical Resources that are willing to correct both issues. Although they are part of the same commercial spacecraft industry they are really different animals. There will be a resiliency and a resurgence of the industry. This is not a flat tire. Out. Insofar as the orbital science explosion, thats a matter of goods, not getting somewhere. This is a matter of a person who lost life. Im going to speak to some Ticket Holders in Virgin Galactic, neither one by the way are interested in giving up their tickets, theyre ready to gone is it safe for me to go once its authorized for passenger use, do you believe thats going to be the case . It remains to be seen but i wouldnt be at all surprised this would be the case. Both after the columbia accident and the challenger accident before that, as well as in commercial spaceflight, budding astronaut corps, theres something budding in the demand to go. There are problems that are going to be drafted in an appropriate way. I dont think people will be running away from this. I think it will take time to recover from but i think youll see that passion and that interest prevail. The passion and interest in space and the commercialization and that passion we all grow up with, the fafnlings wit fascination with space, will continue. Michael alegria, thank you for joining us. Jake ward haa look at some of the Science Behind the rocket that powers spaceship 2 into space. Jake. John, Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 before anyone could have imagined that nasa would be some day privatizing its resupply mission or someone would be willing to pay 250,000 to travel 65 miles above earth for a few minutes of weightlessness. Launching a rowc rocket from earth requires a huge amount of fuel, building a bomb , with the explosion of antaurus rocket, you avoid all of the atmospheric stresses, the proudest development the one that Virgin Galactic touts quite highly, is the rocket they fired up today for the first power test flight since january and only the fourth power flight ever. To burn fuel for rocket 30s you need oxygen rocket thrust you need oxygen. For the distance this rocket is to reach, you dont have oxygen and you have to carry it on board. Virgin galactics rocket carries it in a liquid state, its worth noting that the company has updated its information since that test flight in january. That might be something everybody looks at here. Basically theyre in fireworks where all the propel anlant is a big candle and burns out. The company talks about the ability to close the valve and stop the propulsion and glide safely back to earth. That propulsion will be something everyone will be looking at, but more broadly, the whole nation of space tourism, the speed, 2500 miles per hour, the dangers, the risks, these are nothing we have subjected civilian passengers to before, when things go wrong in this situation, they go very, very wrong. Now that weve seen this danger play out in this commercial company the question is whether paying passengers will select that kind of risk as well. Awarded 10 million to as a winner of antares x prize in 2004. The predecessor of Virgin Galactic spacecraft 2. You were a pioneer, you dreamt of this idea, you got the money together for a contest that spaceship 1 won, it became spaceship 2. This is your dna. How do you feel about what happened today . It is and my heart goes out of course to the families of everyone involved, from mojave space port to virgin to all. What i feel is conversations going on are very naive by most individuals. There were expectations, this is a test flight and the fact of the matter is, i landed at l. A. X. This second and were able to travel and take aish plane travel for airplane travel for granned because over the years theres many who gave their lives to open up that frontier. To say spaceflight is so dangerous, is ridiculous, the fact is, all this is danger are, all this is dangerous. Driving a car is dangerous. 50,000 people die per year. These are people who gave their lives for something they believe in and care about so deeply, we asked humidity humanity on the verge of opening the greatest frontier ever. Anybody who says we should stop and think about this is naive in saying if that had happened with the first automotive earp airplane accident, we would still be on horses. We have to commit ourselves to this. Im a Virgin GalacticTicket Holder and i believe in the company and i believe everybody there is doing their utmost to make this the most safest experience possible. And i personally think that they will come overcome this, they will build their engines safely and there will be a time when smiestled, you and our kids will myself, you and our kids will be able to fly into space safely. Thats what we do, were americans, were explorers. Peter there was an agreement between the commercial space industry and the faa that they wouldnt step in with any heavy handed regulation until the industry is ready for that. That passengers will be actually ready to get on these rockets ships. That was going to come to an end next october unless there was a fatality. They fully now expect the faa to step in a little earlier than they thought. Are you worried that they are going to slow things gown in terms of innovation . What is your message to anybody listening tonight to say dont get carried away with this . My message is not to overreact. The people who are going to be most focused on this wanting safety more than anybody else is going to be the team at Virgin Galactic. I know them personally, they are amazing people who i care for deeply, my heart goes out to all of them. The fact of the matter they are going to be holding on to safety more than anything, their loved ones their friends and family fly safely, when the next spaceship 2 vehicles get delivered for test flight. We only learn by pushing the envelope. For all of the americans listening to your broadcast, ali, i want to remind you that 500 years ago, people crossed the atlantic, to come to america. And i for one living in california am thankful that they took those risks. This is what it means to be an explorer. This is what it means to open a frontier. Unless we forget that we wouldnt be here, had people not done that. Peter, well said. Thank you for joining us. Peter de amondas is the chairman and founder of the x prize foundation. Next up, ill talk to two people and ask them what they think the future of Space Exploration is as they see it. Tonight were looking in depth at the tragic accident of Virgin Galactic spaceship 2, crashed in the Mojave Desert during a test flight. The pilot who ejected and parachuted to the ground survived with serious injuries. These pilots know the risk theyre taking when they sign up. My next guests know a few things about this. Richard garriot is an astronaut w. H. O. Spent time on th who spent time on the Space Shuttle and Alameda County anusha ansari. Let me start with you. Your name is tied to the prize. It was the predecessor to spaceship 2. So when this thing got ready to take its first passengers this was going to be a piece of your legacy, obviously it will still continue. What were your feelings when you found out what happened today . Of course it is sad news and accident and my heart goes to the families and all the people virgin and scaled. Its something that it happens when youer trying to push the boundaries and any type of travelers and when youre trying new technologies and pushes the boundaries theres always accidents that happen. And this was a test flight, and tests mean that we want to find the flaws before were going to fly commercial passengers. I dont know anyone else other than virgin that has taken so many precautions to make sure that they test out everything. Theyve pushed out the time lines, you know, every time they felt that they need more time to do testing. So i feel like you know these are things that happen, and we need to just consider them as part of the way these industries will evolve and it is part of the pathway to make it safer. We need to find through mistakes and failures and accidents in order to make it safer. Anoosh, let me ask you, this is one of the things that people who go to space, nasa astronauts or people like you, says theres magic to us that makes us some better time of humans. Something changes the way you, i dont know the way you see yourself or all of humanity. Tell me about space and why its so magical. For me, going to space is what made me complete. It was something that i wanted to do since i was a kid. And the way i felt when i was in face and the impact it had on me has been something monumental for me. It makes you appreciate your life, your home, your planet, your relationship with your environment, and everything that surrounds you. And it gives you a new perspective on everything. So it is a experience. It is something that i hope will become available to more and more people. And the only way to get there is to take one step at a time and if theres setbacks like whats happening here today and throughout this week, we just need to take a step back, look at it, fix it, and then move on forward. We cant just top and say that this was it, we are going to stop exploring, stop pushing the boundaries. Richard, you know anusha, you know peter, you know the people who came across the atlantic to settle this country, many losses of life, and the people who settled the west, with all of you in the space industry, including two Ticket Holders i spoke to today, should say nothing should stop as a result. Were any of you never scared . Of course, you know, i think all of us who enter into exploration realize that compared to buying a ticket on an existing airliner that we are taking a measured risk beyond that. That being said, i think all of us look at the issues very clearheadedly. For example ton soyuz which we flew on, that had a pretty good safety record, thats about as good as it gets. There were reentries, two prior to mine had ballistic reentries, but fortunate they are still quite minor. We are in the early days of rockets but the only thing to get us past that is having a large number of flights behind us. And thats why we really have no choice that if we ever want to be a space faring nation, a space faring species, we have to push through these kinds of events and carry that torch forward. Virgins doing a great job. I agree with what peter and anusha and others have said, this vehicle had already flew 55 times and was on a powered flight, pushing harder and harder, detailed inspections after every flight. I personally have complete faith and confidence in virgin and theyll rebound after this and things will get safer and safer. Anusha, people involved with x prize and richard is here wearing his x prize shirt. By chance. Im involved with the x prize, you and your family funded the x prize. You say, big problem, got to be fixed, there will be a solution to fix it. But this is in the public domain, that was the issue, it was magical mystical to see rocket ships, but people in this accidents. What is your answer to the people who would say, put a brake on this thing, halt this thing, shut it down. They were trying to say that whether we wer were running the ansari prize, every time they did a test flight, we would get calls, this is crazy you shouldnt be doing it. Yet we fell it was important for us to allow those who understand the risks who want to take the risks to push the boundaries and accomplish what they want to do. I am an engineer but at the same time im an entrepreneur and in Building Companies that maybe doesnt have risk involving lives there are risks of failure in everything we do. And every time we felt if we stopped there would be nothing left of invocatio innovation in things around us. Rocketry, is all around us, the danger is high, but the people who are around it understand the risks and being able to be the pioneers to open up the area for everyone else. The benefits we will get, this is not just about tourism, this is about opening up access to space, lowering the cost so we can start benefiting from resources in space, to help our lives here as humans on earth. So unless we do these things, unless we take these risks, i dont think we will ever be able to accomplish this. As a private company they probably even are more worried about this, because its not something thats funded by taxpayer money. Its something that relies on people buying tickets. So if its not safe of course people wont be flying it. So i think if anyone willen be more concerned about safety, they dont need safety concerns. Everyone will drive the concerns for safety and they will take every measure to make sure its as safe as possible. And i think the whole notion of this being a business and private industry that will help make it safer than if it wasnt. Its an interesting point. I think a lot of innovators like you, richard, get attracted to regulated. It is the one thing you can innovate and theyll catch up with you later. I was asking peter earlier, do you think there will be an acceleration or will it slow down, and people will say this is a test flight, this may happen again . These discussions happened long before these flights where the commercial spaceflight industry all the participants in it and people like the faa sat down to discuss what would these next decades look like . And as michael had mentioned earlier, the faa has a mandate to not poanl help make it safe but have it exist. It is very rare, to say you have not only a mandate but to help bring it into existence. There were discussions of this sort of accident and the discussion was very sober and very forwardthinking, whether it is in year 1 or year 100, of course there will be accidents. And so i trust all the people who are involved in that, who made statements at that time, that says we recognize that will happen and no, we do not think we should jump in with heavy handed regulation at that time. Until we jump in and put real passengers on board this is part of the process. Of course a lot of people are going to look at it in great detail, just to make sure nothing inappropriate was done. But im crf confident theyll find good engineers put a lot of work into this and learned from it unfortunately with the tragedy we had now. Good to see you both. Anusha is the first female space explorer. Coming up, an International Astronaut who spent six and a half months on board the International Space station. Ill speak to him about the America Votes 2014 on Al Jazeera America focusing on what matters to you what are the issues that americans need to know about . Everybody needs healthcare. Lower taxes. Job opportunities. Reporting from the Battle Ground states. Alaska. Kentucky. Iowa. Local elections with National Impact were visiting with the people making the decisions. Covering what it all means for you. The mine shut down, it hurts everything. I just keep puttin one foot in front of the other. Were fighting for the future of our state for straight forward unbiassed political coverage. Stay with Al Jazeera America lets hear more about the risks that these professional spacemen and women take in pioneering the final frontier. For that i go to a pioneer in his own right, lee roy chow, on board Space Commander 10. That trip started in late 2004. His teams food and other supplies femme t fell to criticl levels. Lee roy, thats not your favorite story, youre an astronaut, you have a lot of did stories. You all sign up for risk. I need to understand this better. Some people say regulate this better and this is inherently better, richard and anusha and peter, others in the business, this is a business, guys dont go into space without understand the dangers. Talk about this. Youre right. The passion of this started as an eightyearold kid, watching the apollo moon landing. Everything has been done to risks. When you get onto a vehicle its a little bit different than just going to work and getting on a commercial airliner. Youre stepping onto a vehicle thats going to impart a lot of energy to get you up there. Nevertheless, youre taking some risk and the test pilots that were flying today they knew that risk, they were professional test pilots, had been doing this a long time, you know flown a lot of different kinds of aircraft, tested a lot of different things. Youre right, the attitude should be, hey we got to continue, were going to stand down, do the investigation, find the root cause to the accident today and then learn those lessons and apply them to other vehicles to mimg minimize the risk further. You were the copilot of a russian ship up to space. Were you ever a test pilot . I was not a test pilot. I came through the engineering side. Ive been flying airplanes for 30 years but i was a pilot and never went to test pilot school. A person like you who has taken great risk to exist in space and the commercialization of the vehicles, including the one who unfortunately died you got some sense of this. You are trained for this degree of risk. Will we ever get to the point where that transfers on to regular passengers where it becomes commonplace for us to spend time in space . Well, yes. I think we will get to the point where space flights and transfer to space with people on board, passengers on board becomes more routine or somewhat routine. But i dont think youll ever get the risks down necessarily down to the point of a commercial airline. And the reason is just its so much energy needs to be transferred to a vehicle to get you to orbit. You know 17,500 miles an hour, if its suborbital like Virgin Galactic plans to do its substantially lest, but the point is that substantially less. But what were doing, the risks in commercial spaceflight are manageable but people have to recognize this for at least now to near to mid term its not going to be the same as getting on an airline. Lee roy chao, good to see you. Coming up, looking at the men and women in the space every saturday, Al Jazeera America brings you controversial. Both parties are owned by the corporations. Entertaining its fun to play with ideas. Thought provoking get your damn education. Surprising oh, absolutely . Exclusive oneonone interviews with the most interesting people of our time. Youre listening because you want to see whats going to happen. I want to know what works what do you know works . Conversations you wont find anywhere else. Talk to al jazeera. Only on Al Jazeera America. Oh my only time can tell how the todays crash of spaceship two, from Virgin Galactic. This is not a cheap ride but ambitious dreams often exact a huge price. Patricia sabga has more. A company vying to take tourists into space. Richard branson launched Virgin Galactic in 2004. Hopefully make Space Available for the masses. Branson was instrumental in convincing new mexico, to build spaceportamerica where Virgin Galactic is anonymit is now based. Now owned by northrop grummon, the pilot of spaceshiptwo up into space. Im going and i hope you will be joining me. Originally set to start commercial spaceflight in 2011, the accident in 2007 claimed the lives of three people. Branson was hopeful that commercial spaceflight would begin next year. It is unclear whether todays crash will delay that yet again. Patricia sabga, al jazeera. David whitcomb, i spoke to him via skype and asked him where and when he bought his 200,000 ticket. I was home in honolulu sometime in 2008 and i heard about the flight, and i immediately asked my wife if she wanted to come with me. She said no but shed wait for me on the ground with a bottle of champagne. And i immediately went to my computer and signed up. And did you have you spoken to her since this has happened and what was your reaction, what was hers . Yes, yes, we were together at home today, and in new york, and obviously were shocked. We think that our, or i think, rather, that i met one of the test pilots who probably died, the chief test pilot at a gathering a couple of years ago in u. K. So im particularly saddened, if that is the person, because i spent a lot of time talking with his son. And it is a terrible tragedy. You know, youve been around, david. You obviously enjoy space. You know of the history of test pilots, and how these things go. But its been you know, we had the Space Shuttle accidents. But largely we dont think of space or even suborbital space like Virgin Galactic, we dont accidentprone. Are you rethinking your decision at this point . Absolutely not. I still dont think of i. T. As being all that accidentprone and im completely willing to take the risk. Obviously i think the risk will be less when i go, because ill be on one of the flights in the late 20s or in, lets say, around the 30th flight. So i expect it will be less dangerous. But frankly, if they had a plane ready and they offered it to me, id go tomorrow. Ha. Very interesting. This doesnt set you into a different mindset. Are you just a risky guy or do you think law of averages things go wrong sometimes but most times they wont . Well, both, i in fact, i do take risks like most of the Virgin Galactics future astronauts, people who signed up and paid their money, ive been an entrepreneur for a good part of my life. And thats a risky thing. I also fly with a friend on his ancient soviet yak plane, the last plane that soviet pilots used to train on before they flew migs, and that i think is as risky as flying on Virgin Galactic, probably more so. Plus i cross the street in new york city every day. You know what position you are. Is that typical when you buy a ticket from Virgin Galactic that you know your number . You know your number. And i dont know which flight i would be on. And obviously i dont know the dates, it will now be much further in the future than i had hoped. But you do you get a number, an astronaut number and presumably you get called and offered a flight in that order. And youre number 138. Have you moved up the list as people have dropped out . I think im 183. 183, okay. My guess ask ive moved up a little bit because i signed up in early 2008, i think. And its conceivable that some of the people who signed up ahead of me are now too old or too unhealthy to go. Good uhhuh. 2008. At the time it seemed like the first flight would have actually happened already and then it looked like it was going to be maybe later this year, then Richard Branson said maybe february or march of this year, it seems evident, it will not be february or march. The faa will get involved, theyll have to figure out what went wrong. At no point did you and your wife had the conversation, im going to sit this out, or being 183, do you feel plots of people will go ahead of you and they will work out the kinks . Even if they offered me tomorrow, i would go. But ill probably have to go later, especially after todays tragedy. That is david whitcomb. The father some say of High Frequency trading. Coming up, why this accident had to happen, real money back in two minutes. Start with one issue education. Gun control. The gap between rich and poor. Job creation. Climate change. Tax policy. The economy. Iran. Healthcare. Ad guests on all sides of the debate. This is a right we should all have. Its just the way it is. Theres something seriously wrong. Theres been acrimony. The conservative ideal. Its an urgent need. And a host willing to ask the tough questions how do you explain it to yourself . And youll get. The inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5 eastern only on Al Jazeera America our coverage continues of the virnlg irnerage continues of the galactic accident which killed one pilot and seriously hurt another. Richard tomlinson said, this accident had to happen. Cofounder of deep Space Industries and a space entrepreneur and someone with a vested interest in making sure everybody doesnt high tail it out of the spay industry right richard . Youve got to say this is just part of how its supposed to go. Well, its not that i have to say it, its just that its an northwes inevidentability. A lon an elon and spacex have had a perfect record but unless we get sloppy in our selfconfidence this is going to happen. It had to happen now and actually as terrible as it is, it is better that it happened now than later when that vehicle is full of spaceflight participants. Youre not new to this game. You have been in the space industry for a while and as ive been speaking to people who have been in the space work for ten, 20, 30 years, they get that this happens. Youve drawn an analogy to dangers of things we do more commonly. We sign on, edo this with our eyes open. We do this with our eyes open absolutely. This is something that these people feel is important enough to put their lives on the line about. And frankly you know, i think this is indicative of the fact that a lot of people have been talking about how our culture is failing, and that were getting too sanguine, to laid back, were getting lazy. This is the edge. And whether youre an individual or youre a culture, it is how you approach the edge, and cross that edge, that defines you. And tells you how alive you are. This is actually a sign that American Culture in particular is very vibrant. We just dont see this every day. These people are out there, doing something new, and theyre doing it in the name of a great cause. Do you see any effect to the commercial space industry, to space tourism, to the people who had bought tickets or were thinking about buying tickets on spaceshiptwo as a result . I tell you in full disclosure i talk to people who have and nobody seems to not have registered that Something Like this might happen and its not changing their view. Im a little surprised by it. I helped sign up a guy named dennis tito, who is the first guy to sign up to go to space. I wrote an article about why we shouldnt call these people tourists, this is not the same as sitting in a bus driving through some sort of disney park or something. These people are aware of the risks theyre taking and theyre doing it because this is something grand. Something important to them. You know i was just speaking 30 minutes ago almost, to a group of the top engineering students in the country. And every kid in that room would jump to be able to go do this kind of thing. And theyre excited by it. Because this is laying out the future they are going to participate in. Richard thank you for your insights. I believe you are speaking to students because there is a bit of a conference or convention where you are, in carolina. Thank you for joining us. Ironically we were in the midst of covering the space industry and its importance to our country, which is why we had a producer and a camera in virginia when the rocket exploded. We will continue this conversation about the importance of space and our economy and where the industry is going. We now have this information about the development of commercial tourism into space will be delayed for at least a few months. Well continue to give you more information on the destruction of spaceshiptwo over the Mojave Desert. Im jeffre ali velshi, thank yor joining us. Rival military leaders claim burkina faso after protests fought out the president of the west african country. I am david foster irrelevant watching al jazerra. Welcome to the program. Also coming uppin. Itup. Fighters joining in the ft against isil in kobane. A ceasefire with the nigh jean government. Very judge galactics