[zepolud]

"These people" that designed the spaceplane didn't put their lives on the line, they put the lives of the pilots on the line. And I would trust the judgment of the engineers at Boeing, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, Lockheed-Martin and the entire Soviet space program over theirs.

[winslow]

Really... You are going to trust the entire Soviet space program compared to the engineers behind this project? I really don't think they were being reckless with having pilots. Ultimately, their plan was to take other patrons up to space. You will need personal (experienced space flight attendants) while conducting the flight. This is obviously tragic and my thoughts go out to the families affected. However, when you are trying to do something as complex as space travel and leaving earth you will unfortunately have mishaps and deaths.

Please have a look here - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_program#Incidents....

[zepolud]

Please read the context of the first post--I'm referring to the engineers behind the specifically mentioned Buran program, an autonomous spaceplane that launched, flew and landed with no crew.

If the Soviets deemed it too risky for human pilots and managed to automate it 25 years ago maybe that should put it into perspective just how risky and reckless what Virgin are doing is.

[gohrt]

So the pilot died in order to make Richard Branson's space tourists have a safer and more enjoyable weekend. Cool.

[JoeAltmaier]

The pilot died trying to make a cheap, reusable orbiter a reality. The tourists are there to help pay for it.

[zepolud]

It's not even that; it's suborbital.

[pwnna]

Gotta establish a suborbital trajectory to reach orbit, though.

One step at a time.