Virgin Galactic has kept a low profile since the rocket firing accident July 26th that killed three Scaled Composites employees and critically injured three others. Scaled Composites, under Burt Rutan, is designing and building Virgin Galactic's suborbital tourist spaceships.
Virgin's public relations strategy seems to be to let Rutan take the lead in explaining what happened and calming nerves. That approach may be aided by the lack of coverage the accident received in the national televiosion news reports. A spokesperson for Virgun Galactic did say recently that the company has received no cancellations from ticketholders since the accident, and in fact some more tickets have been sold.
The nightmare of those trying to build a space tourism industry has to be the loss of a flight before the industry has had a chance to prove itself. The Mojave accident is a reminder of what's on the line. Virgin's strategy of studied silence may be sound in the short run, but to build a robust industry over the long run, making sure everybody understands the risks of spaceflight is in the interests of the companies involved.
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