After years of technical problems that delayed commercial flights — which Branson had once hoped would happen as early as 2007 — the company seemed to be making real progress in 2014. But late that year, the spacecraft came apart during a test flight when one of the pilots prematurely unlocked a device designed to reorient the spacecraft once it is in space. One of the pilots, Michael Alsbury, who was 39 and had two young children, was killed in the accident, and the other, Peter Siebold, suffered serious injuries after parachuting to the ground.

Source: Washington Post July 09, 2021 13:49 UTC