Sir Richard Branson should press ahead with plans to send tourists into space despite the death of a test pilot, according to the Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.
Speaking in London, the former commander of the International Space Station said that a project such as Virgin Galactic was key to making extraterrestrial travel accessible not just to highly trained astronauts but also to “space travellers”.
Michael Alsbury, 39, a test pilot, was killed in October when a prototype rocket, SpaceShipTwo, crashed. It led to speculation that the project might have to be abandoned.
In a talk at Foyles bookshop about You Are Here, his collection of photographs taken from orbit, Hadfield said: “In 1914, pilots died all the time just trying to figure out aviation,