Ego, spin and a disaster waiting to happen: Richard Branson's biographer on how the Virgin tycoon is scrabbling to save what remains of his reputation - and his fortune - after space plane crash

Richard Branson has not yet publicly announced whether he will attend the funeral of Michael Alsbury, the 39-year-old test pilot killed when the spacecraft Virgin Galactic exploded over the Mojave Desert last Friday.

Since the question now being asked is whether Branson’s determination to send tourists into space may have contributed to Alsbury’s fate, it might be the least Virgin’s founder could do. Branson knows he is fighting for his reputation and what remains of his fortune.

He arrived at the desolate airbase 24 hours after the disaster in sombre mood. Friday’s test flight was meant to mark the beginning of his fightback against those critics who, for the past decade, have damned his space business as dangerous.

Repeatedly, Branson was told by engineers and scientists that the rocket was an explosion waiting to happen. Geoff Daly, a U.S.-based British rocket scientist, told me how he had sent emails to the American Federal Aviation Authority last year in which he warned that if further test flights went ahead, the results could be catastrophic.

A number of senior executives have quit the project — most recently, Jim Tighe, who had been the rocket’s aerodynamic mastermind for more than ten years. Eight weeks ago, Tighe suspected that the design changes which Virgin Galactic required were too dangerous, but he could not fight against the countdown imposed by Branson.

Ever since my book about Branson was published in January, highlighting Virgin Galactic’s defects and the repeated failure to meet its deadlines, Branson has been on the defensive. He knew he was running out of time to launch his £700 million tourist rocket into space — and maintain credibility in the process.

Finally, he appeared on American TV eight weeks ago and pledged that he and his son Sam would be flying to the edge of space next March.

After that public declaration, he was committed to an accelerated process. The rocket would need several test flights before it was safe for Branson’s epic voyage, which would no doubt have taken place with all the razzmatazz associated with every Branson launch.

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. Nothing, it seemed, could be allowed to delay that deadline — not even the warnings that the system that powered the spacecraft was an accident waiting to happen.

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

At first, after the accident, his PR machine spun the line that Virgin Galactic was at the cutting edge, talking about a ‘record-breaking’ pioneering science, and how pioneers always took risks. But as the reports of previous warnings poured in, that excuse can no longer wash.

Wreck: Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) stand by the debris of Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo in the Mojave Desert where it crashed after a test flight over California on Friday

Last night, the Virgin machine began hinting that the finger of blame should really be pointed at Scaled Composites, the contractor building the rocket, and Virgin’s former partner. That manoeuvre will also fail. Because whatever Branson now says, he must have understood the dangers.

Virgin Galactic is powered in a relatively crude fashion. The propulsion chamber is lined with either solid rubber or nylon, and that lining is ignited by nitrous oxide. In theory, a 60-second ‘burn’ should propel the rocket to the edge of space at 3,000mph.

But it’s not quite that simple. During tests on the engines in California seven years ago, three engineers were killed in a blast. Since then, several experts have warned that the result of this toxic combination can be an uncontrolled explosion.

Though the cause of Friday’s crash is yet to be determined, it seems distinctly possible this is what happened high above the desert.

Until very recently, the Virgin Galactic website dismissed those warnings by describing the burn of nitrous oxide with rubber as ‘benign, stable, as well as containing none of the toxins found in solid rocket motors’.

Yet Carolynne Campbell, a British rocket motor expert, told Virgin in 2009 that their description was false. ‘Nitrous oxide,’ she wrote to Virgin’s headquarters, ‘can explode on its own. Unlike oxygen [used to power conventional rockets], it’s an explosive. And rockets blow up because that’s their nature.’ Branson ignored the warning.

Tragic sequence of events: These images show the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo rocket separating from the carrier aircraft, left, prior to it exploding in the air, right, during a test flight on Friday

In 2004, Branson thought his investment in a space rocket was no different than buying a Boeing jet. In the past, in business, he had usually defied the odds. Sometimes he won; sometimes he lost. Playing chance and breaking the rules was his fun and his source of profit.

But when he lost on Virgin Cola or Virgin Megastores, the only casualties were financial — and bruised egos.

He never understood that taking on Virgin Galactic was defying science and engineering, and that you can’t break the rules of science without someone getting hurt.

In the rarefied atmosphere of Branson’s gilded life on his Caribbean tax haven island, his rules reigned supreme — and he dismissed the consequences of risk and failure.

So, as the years passed after buying a 50 per cent share in the rocket (with the firm Scaled Composites), and then total ownership, he became seduced by his own sales patter peddling the space dream. And dozens of Hollywood stars, including Justin Bieber and Tom Hanks, and celebrity politicians such as Bill Clinton and Arnie Schwarzenegger, bought into his delusion.

A more cautious businessman might have hesitated and asked for independent experts to scrutinise his plans. But Branson did the opposite.

To the surprise of many in the space community, especially Professor Tommaso Sgobba, the president of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), Virgin was working in secrecy.

No outsiders were allowed to know what Virgin’s engineers were concocting. Sgobba points out that Virgin Galactic refused to allow its rocket to be examined by others with expertise in the industry.

‘They operated in secrecy, which is difficult to understand,’ he said. ‘They don’t use modern techniques in putting safety into the design. They use outdated methods like testing and seeing what happens.’

Sgobba told me last December: ‘I can easily expect an accident will happen. If people die, the prosecution would go through the designs and allege that “the rocket was unsafe”. And then Virgin will be prosecuted.’

Sgobba is Branson’s nightmare incarnated. Even after the awful events of last Friday, Virgin described the explosion merely as an ‘anomaly’.

To that, Sgobba is merciless: ‘It’s old and dangerous technology. And he was told that.’

Richard Branson: Determined to find out what went wrong

Not surprisingly, Branson is now scrambling to rescue what he once proudly boasted was his ‘flagship company’. He even spoke on Saturday about re-starting the programme and paraded a ticket holder (at £150,000 a ticket, it’s only for multi-millionaires) who pledged his enthusiasm still to fly, as evidence that the disaster only delayed the company’s plans but did not change anything.

His spokesman once again described the explosion as an ‘anomaly’. In fact, it was both predicted and perhaps even inevitable.

A spokesman for Virgin Galactic said: ‘The investigation of the accident is now in the hands of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and we are not permitted to make any comment whatsoever until that investigation has run its course.’

Branson dismissed claims that Virgin Galactic had ignored safety warnings: ‘I find it slightly irresponsible that people who know nothing about what they are saying can be saying things before the NTSB makes its comments,’ he said.

What matters now to the 64-year-old tycoon is limiting the damage. The question is whether his reputation can be saved from the wreckage scattered across the American desert.

After the 2007 explosion, Branson and Virgin Galactic were not exposed to a federal investigation because it took place on the ground. But following this disaster at 45,000ft, the company will surely face more serious scrutiny from the authorities.

While it seems unlikely that Branson himself could be exposed to any legal actions, because there were no passengers on board, it is hard to believe that the professional experts will not condemn the spacecraft’s design.

Reputational damage: A tank, part of wreckage lies near the site where a Virgin Galactic space tourism rocket, SpaceShipTwo, exploded and crashed in Mojave, California, on Friday

In the meantime, he will have hefty bills to pay. He has contracts to employ 250 engineers in Mojave, and other engineers near Los Angeles. He may also find an increasing number of ticket holders demanding their £150,000 fares be returned. Those fares alone total about £56 million.

And then there is the small matter of the £138 million cost of construction attached to the desert spaceport, which, incredibly, Branson convinced New Mexico’s then governor, Bill Richardson, to finance through the public purse.

Isolated now, Branson is fighting his biggest battle yet. So far, a benevolent media and adoring fans are giving him time to plan his strategy. But in the end, most so-called supermen crash — and Branson will be no different.

█ Tom Bower is author of Branson Behind The Mask, the story of Virgin Galactic.