What now for space tourism?

摘要

Reminds me of the early days of air travel. We will get there in the end. It will lead to greater things such as fast long-distance travel rather than just serving a quick jolly into space and back to say you've been. I am surprised that a specialist publication such as The Engineer has got involved in all the hand wringing that has gone on in the mainstream press over this accident. Yes, it is tragic that a life was lost, but test pilots accept that there is a degree of risk in their profession. We must remember that this was a test flight and the reason for doing physical testing is to find problems. Far better that this accident has occurred now, and not with paying customers on board. The engineers involved will now be working to understand what went wrong, and take steps to ensure that this - and other failure modes - are either prevented or can be contained safely.