I can't see how this won't be a MAJOR setback for private spaceflight. It is absolutely critical that the public trust the safety of newly developed spaceflight before significant numbers will fly. It will be years before that trust is earned again by the private spaceflight industry. Considering the small scale of the operation, this is a large number of people to die. They died in a presumably preventable accident. Were there shortcuts taken? In hindsight, I'm sure the findings will be that there were. Now, there will be more oversight and less shortcuts. This will probably increase safety a bit, but it will also probably increase costs and lengthen schedules quite a lot.

Frankly I wish it would not have the major negative impact I expect. I believe the work that operations like scaled composites are accomplishing are well worth the risks, but we now live in a risk averse world. There will be long term government interference, media handwringing, and a general overreaction to the accident. This accident is hard to understand, and I assume it is most shocking the staff and managment of Scaled Composites. In some ways I feel disappointed and angry that such an accident was allowed to happen. I know that those feeling are inappropriate in the face of grieving families who have had such a personal loss. But I also mourn for humanity whose aspirations for public access to space have taken a severe blow.

Ultimately, we will go on, standing on the shoulders of those who have given their lives in the pursuit of such lofty goals. God speed to those that have gone before us, and God speed to those that will continue to follow the course.