Space Galactic's dead pilot identified as father-of-two Michael Alsbury

This article is more than 12 months old

Nov 02, 2014 06:18 pm

The man killed in the crash was identified on Saturday as 39-year-old Michael Alsbury, a father of two and test pilot for Virgin Galactic’s project partner, Scaled Composites.

He was also the co-pilot for SpaceShipTwo’s first powered flight, The Independent reported.

The pilot, Peter Siebold, who is also the project's director of flight operations, is in hospital receiving treatment.

The Virgin CEO said he did not know Mr Alsbury, though a video shows the two men together as the Virgin Galactic team celebrated a successful test flight last year (2013).

Sir Richard paid tribute to the pilots and their families and said: "This team is a group of the bravest, brightest, most determined and most resilient people I have ever had the privilege of knowing.

"We are determined to honour the bravery of the pilots and teams here by learning from this tragedy."