The death of flight engineer and test pilot Michael Alsbury would not be a waste of talent and life because Virgin Galactic, which plans to pioneer in space tourism, would honor pilots' bravery by finding the cause of the Friday disaster.

The firm, too, would apply what they learned from the tragedy after SpaceShipTwo exploded seconds after it took off over the Mojave Desert in California. The 39-year-old Alsbury was the co-pilot of the same craft that broke the sound barrier in 2013.

Like Us on Facebook

Alsbury was not an employee of Sir Richard Branson's company, Virgin Galactic, but worked the past 20 years for Scaled Composites, builder and operator of the ill-fated SpaceShipTwo.

Besides Alsbury, USA Today identified his co-pilot as Peter Siebold, who parachuted to safety but was still hurt. The Kern County Sheriff's Office in California said that Siebold was scheduled to undergo surgery on Saturday afternoon.

Branson said that by applying the lessons learned from Friday's tragedy, "Only then can we move forward, united behind a collective desire to push the boundaries of human endeavor," quoted by ABC. He continued, "In testing the boundaries of human capabilities and technologies, we are standing on the shoulders on giants," while admitting, "Yesterday, we fell short."

The body of Alsbury, who lived in Tehachapi, California, was found inside the rocket wreckage. His home, which he shared with his wife and two young children, is near the Mojave Air and Space Port. A neighbor said that the family - now grieving and declined to comment on the death - lived in the community for about two years.

Test logs said that Alsbury co-piloted the craft at least seven times between 2010 and 2014, with over 1,800 hours of flight experience. He had also served as co-pilot of WhiteKnightTwo, which carried SpaceShipTwo above ground and dropped the latter to start its rocket-powered flight that possibly exploded because of a shift in fuel.

"We are not going to push on blindly ... We're going to learn from what went wrong ... discover how we can improve safety and performance," the Virgin Galactic CEO said. Tasked with finding out the cause of the crash is the National Transportation Safety Board, which starts its probe on Saturday.

Branson said the accident should not dash hopes for commercial space travel as he pointed out that during the early years of commercial air travel, there were incidents but eventually air travel was considered a safe mode of transportation.

"The dream of space travel will live on. We would love to finish what we started some years ago," Branson declared.

TagsSpaceShipTwo, Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, michael alsbury