'Now Is Not The Time For Speculation'

In a statement posted on the Virgin Galactic website Sunday, the company says that the public will need to be patient in learning what caused Friday's catastrophic anomaly that caused SpaceShipTwo to break up over the Mojave Desert during a powered test flight.

The statement reads:

"Over the past few days, there has been speculation about the tragic incident the resulted in the death of Scaled Composites’ pilot, Michael Alsbury, injuries to pilot Peter Siebold and the loss of SpaceShipTwo. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with the families and friends of these brave men.

"We understand that everyone is anxious to understand what happened on Friday; certainly no one wants to know more than we do. However, as we have made clear, Virgin Galactic is not in a position to comment on the incident itself or the test flight. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is in charge of the investigation and we are cooperating fully with their work. All inquiries should be directed to them.

"At Virgin Galactic, we are dedicated to opening the space frontier, while keeping safety as our ‘North Star’. This has guided every decision we have made over the past decade, and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically untrue. We have the privilege to work with some of the best minds in the space industry, who have dedicated their lives to the development of technologies to enable the continued exploration of space. All of us at Virgin Galactic understand the importance of our mission and the significance of creating the first ever commercial spaceline. This is not a mission that anyone takes lightly.

"Everything we do is to pursue the vision of accessible and democratized space – and to do it safely. Just like early air or sea travel, it is hard and complicated, but we believe that a thriving commercial space industry will have far reaching benefits for humanity, technology and research for generations to come. This is an important mission and we have been overwhelmed and grateful for the outpouring of support we have received from our future astronauts, friends in the industry and people all over the world who are inspired by the work our industry is doing and who are urging us to continue.

"Now is not the time for speculation. Now is the time to focus on all those affected by this tragic accident and to work with the experts at the NTSB, to get to the bottom of what happened on that tragic day, and to learn from it so that we can move forward safely with this important mission."

The company directs all inquiries to the NTSB, which will lead the investigation.

(Images from file)

FMI: www.ntsb.gov, www.scaled.com, www.virgingalactic.com