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SPACE TRAVEL
Risk-taker Branson battles to protect Virgin brand
by Staff Writers
London (AFP) Nov 04, 2014


Branson pushes on with spaceship plan despite crash
London (AFP) Nov 04, 2014 - Space tourism venture Virgin Galactic on Tuesday said it was pressing ahead with plans to build a second model of the SpaceShipTwo which crashed in the Mojave Desert last week.

"While this has been a tragic setback, we are moving forward and will do so deliberately and with determination," the company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson said in a statement.

"We are continuing to build the second SpaceShipTwo (serial number two), which is currently about 65 percent complete and we will continue to advance our mission over the coming weeks and months."

It added: "We owe it to all of those who have risked and given so much to stay the course and deliver on the promise of creating the first commercial spaceline."

One pilot of the spaceship, Michael Alsbury, was killed in the crash on Friday. The other, Pete Siebold, survived.

Branson has already stressed that he plans to press ahead with the programme, although he indicated that this would depend on the results of an investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board.

The probe is expected to take about a year.

Investigators on Monday gave a precise timeline of the accident, detailing when a slowing mechanism was wrongly deployed, but said they could not determine who activated it.

Richard Branson knows how to handle business setbacks, but he is now battling to protect the Virgin empire's image following the test flight crash of his flagship space tourism venture.

The British entrepreneur is fighting to stop the fatal crash that brought down Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo charring his sprawling Virgin Group, which encompasses more than 400 companies in multiple sectors.

Risk-taking has always been part of Branson's business entrepreneurism and personal adventurism.

"Pushing the bounds of knowledge and possibility comes with unavoidable risk," Branson said after Friday's crash.

The 64-year-old tycoon had hoped to take the first commercial flight, planned for four months' time.

British newspaper The Times said Tuesday that Branson was facing the damaging accusation "that his pioneering space tourism company had become a triumph of public relations with an unproven and potentially lethal spacecraft attached".

Financial Times writer John Gapper said Branson was both a "risk-taking, publicity-seeking adventurer" and a "hard-headed private entrepreneur" and it was "foolish" of him to have mixed up these personas in Virgin Galactic.

- Reputation at risk: biographer -

Branson's biographer Tom Bower warned that the tycoon's personal standing -- so often indelibly intertwined with his investments -- was now on the line.

"Branson heading for space was going to be the Last Great Hurrah for the Virgin Superman, confirming the genius of the Virgin brand and embellishing the myth of Branson the Superhero," he wrote in the Daily Mail newspaper.

"Instead of global glory, Branson is now scrabbling for survival. Not only is his Virgin brand at risk, so too is his personal reputation."

Branson has bounced back from business failures in the past, including Virgin Brides, Virgin Cola and Virgin Megastores.

But he is already facing hostile press in Britain for relocating to the British Virgin Islands tax haven, where he has owned a paradise island getaway since 1978.

Shy in person and hesitant when speaking, Branson -- dyslexic, and twice married with two surviving children -- has built a vast business empire.

A knight of the realm, The Sunday Times newspaper's Rich List 2014 ranks him the 23rd-richest person in Britain, with a 3.6 billion pounds ($5.8 billion, 4.6 billion euro) fortune.

Virgin Group encompasses companies dealing in everything from trains, wines and music labels, to mobile phones, airlines and banking.

Branson's typical modus operandi is to throw the Virgin name into existing markets as a fresh, upstart rival offering better customer service.

Few of Branson's ventures have been launched without some attention-grabbing publicity stunt featuring the boss himself.

- Branson a crisis management 'master' -

Branson began young, launching a student-aimed magazine while still at private school before setting up Virgin Records aged just 20.

His breakthrough came with "Tubular Bells", a 1973 instrumental album by British progressive rock act Mike Oldfield which sold millions of copies.

The record label was sold off in 1992, but by that time Branson had already branched into aviation, setting up Virgin Atlantic in 1984 and building it into Britain's second-biggest airline.

Branson has also set a series of aviation and nautical adventure records, although he failed, despite numerous attempts, to become the first person to circumnavigate the globe non-stop in a balloon.

These exploits brought Branson close to tragedy in 1998 when he and his co-pilot had to ditch their balloon in the Pacific Ocean after low pressure forced the craft down.

Citing this, British public relations expert Mark Borkowski said the entrepreneur had handled crises before and his response this time had been "textbook" and "pure Branson".

"He's come out with a very pertinent line -- I am going to go up first, with my family. You can't argue with that," Borkowski told AFP.

"He's not created a news vacuum: he's faced it up personally, he's tackled the difficult questions.

"Because the Virgin brand is still partly Branson, his ability to do it actually encloses the contagion.

"There are some people absolutely built for it and Branson is the master of it. When a brand can tackle a crisis, it actually has a counter-effect because it gives greater confidence throughout the brand."


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SPACE TRAVEL
Virgin crash sets back space tourism by years: experts
Washington DC (AFP) Nov 01, 2014
The deadly crash of Virgin Galactic's spacecraft has dealt a devastating setback to the cause of space tourism, delaying the first commercial flights to the stars by years, experts said Friday. After several delays, Virgin Galactic had hoped to start ferrying passengers to the edge of space in 2015, ushering in a new era of tourism for those willing and wealthy enough to pay up to $250,000 ... read more


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