Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975 – October 31, 2014) was an American test pilot for

Scaled Composites Scaled Composites (often called simply Scaled) is an American aerospace company founded by Burt Rutan and currently owned by Northrop Grumman. It is located at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California, United States. Founded to develo ...

. He died on October 31, 2014, during test flight PF04 of the

Virgin Galactic Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and his British Virgin Group retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited. It is headquartered in California, and operates from New Mexico. The company ...

SpaceShipTwo The Scaled Composites Model 339 SpaceShipTwo (SS2) is an air-launched suborbital spaceplane type designed for space tourism. It is manufactured by The Spaceship Company, a California-based company owned by Virgin Galactic. SpaceShipTwo is c ...

VSS ''Enterprise''.

Personal life

Alsbury had been a flying enthusiast since childhood. He graduated from

California Polytechnic State University California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (California Polytechnic State University, Cal Poly"Cal Poly" may also refer to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt in Arcata, California or California State Polytechnic Univ ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

degree in

Aeronautical Engineering Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...

. Alsbury had been married to Michelle Saling for 12 years and had two children, aged 7 and 10, at the time of his death.

Career

Alsbury joined Scaled Composites in 2001 and began working as a project engineer and pilot. In April 2013, he served as copilot to

Mark Stucky Mark P. "Forger" Stucky (born 9 November 1958) is an American test pilot and commercial astronaut. In these roles, he was an employee of Virgin Galactic, a private spaceflight company which is developing sub-orbital space tourism flights. On ...

on the first powered flight for VSS ''Enterprise'' and SpaceShipTwo. At the time of his death, he had 1800 flight hours, 1600 of them as a test pilot and engineer with Scaled Composites. In 2013, he received the

Ray E. Tenhoff Award The Ray E. Tenhoff Award recognizes the most outstanding technical paper presented at the annual Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP) Symposium in Los Angeles, California. The award was established in 1962 and is given in memory of Convair tes ...

for the most outstanding technical paper at the

Society of Experimental Test Pilots The Society of Experimental Test Pilots is an international organization that seeks to promote air safety and contributes to aeronautical advancement by promoting sound aeronautical design and development; interchanging ideas, thoughts and suggest ...

symposium along with Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols. On October 31, 2014, Alsbury was test flying the

, VSS ''Enterprise'' with

Peter Siebold Peter Siebold (born 1971) is a member of the Scaled Composites astronaut team. He is their Director of Flight Operations, and was one of the test pilots for SpaceShipOne and SpaceShipTwo, the experimental spaceplanes developed by the company ...

. The craft broke up in-flight, resulting in a total loss of VSS ''Enterprise'', which crashed in the California

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily i ...

. Alsbury was unable to exit the spacecraft, and his remains were found still strapped to his seat in the fuselage. The pilot, Peter Siebold, survived. It was the ninth time that Alsbury had flown aboard the aircraft.

Legacy

On November 4, 2014, episode 5 of

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's Flagship (broadcasting), flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News ...

's ''

Human Universe ''Human Universe'' is a British television series broadcast on BBC Two, presented by Professor Brian Cox. An accompanying book was also published. Episodes 1. "Apeman – Spaceman" First broadcast: 9:00 pm, 7 Oct 2014 on BBC T ...

'', presented by Brian Cox, was dedicated to Alsbury, as it had a sequence on Virgin Galactic test pilot David Mackay. His name was added to the

Space Mirror Memorial The Space Mirror Memorial, which forms part of the larger Astronauts Memorial, is a National Memorial on the grounds of the John F. Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, Florida. It is maintained by the Astronauts Memorial Foun ...

in 2020.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alsbury, Michael 1975 births 2014 deaths Accidental deaths in California American test pilots Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States California Polytechnic State University alumni Commercial astronauts Scaled Composites Space program fatalities Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 2014 Virgin Galactic

Personal life

Career

Legacy

See also

References