This blog post is a response to Adrian Yu’s blog post.

Reading through Adrian Yu’s blog, I came across a blog post that interested me as a big fan of Elon Musk and commercial space flight. As the CTO of the SpaceX, a private aerospace company, Elon Musk declared the goal of the company: to colonize Mars.

As a strong supporter of further exploration of space, SpaceX’s goal excites me. However, two recent accidents seem to show that commercial flight is still a long ways to go. On Oct. 28, the Antares rocket developed by Orbital Sciences Corporation exploded on takeoff. On Oct. 31, Virgin Galactic’s VSS Enterprise, designed to carry passengers into space suffered a catastrophic failure.

Antares Rocket Explosion – First Hand Account From NASA Wallops

Virgin Galactic Crash

As a very new private industry, governments shouldn’t strictly regulate privatized space travel or risk destroying the industry before it makes progress. However, these two recent events have undoubtedly devastated the commercial space industry as people are questioning regulations and the safety of commercial space flight. These events have possibly thrown a wrench in SpaceX’s plans.

Sources:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/adrianyu/2014/10/05/the-colonization-of-space/

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-29895140

http://www.space.com/27638-virgin-galactic-crash-private-spaceflight-safety.html