Richard Branson’s Leadership and Virgin’s Failed Space Missions

Richard Branson’s Leadership and Virgin’s Failed Space Missions

The race to space has been ongoing for several decades, with governments and private organizations seeking to develop spacecraft that beat the performance of the other. In the private sector, the development of spacecraft has been dominated by three companies; Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Blue Origin. Virgin Galactic is led by Richard Branson, SpaceX by Elon Musk, and Blue Origin by Jeff Bezos. These three companies have been aggressively competing with each other since each seeks to commercialize space travel even though each has a unique idea on how to do it. Out of the three companies, Richard Branson’s operation has been the one with the most crises, including the most recent one in 2021. In the most recent crisis that happened on July 11, 2019, Richard Branson was inside the rocket plane, but the mission was shortly terminated after the rocket was dropped, which led to an emergency landing of the craft, and subsequent grounding of the rocket plane by the FAA for investigation (Antczak, 2020; Amos, 2021). Given that the Virgin Galactic operation has had five fails and fatalities within the various crises as compared to its competitors who have not had any incidents and use automation for tests, various concerns are raised about whether Richard Branson’s leadership has a role to play in the various mishaps. This paper seeks to evaluate the literature on the events that led to the various mishaps and determine what role Branson’s leadership played.

Literature Review

Space exploration and travel are unpredictable operations that require intense testing and assessment for them to be deemed safe for the flying public and those on the ground. Subsequently, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX, and Blue Origin have conducted several test flights to ascertain the feasibility and safety of their spacecraft. Virgin Galactic has been operational since 2004 when it was founded and has conducted tens of tests over 17 years, with only three successful tests that reached the rocket plane’s maximum altitude (Davenport, 2021). The initial problems with the spacecraft began in 2007 when the planes had technical problems which resulted in delayed test flights (Davenport, 2021). The plane was unlike its competitors such that it is carried by a mothership to 40,000 feet and then released to continue on an upward trajectory as compared to traditional rocket launching (Wattles, 2021). The hundreds of engineers at Virgin made progress in 2014, but the test flights resulted in a crash that left one pilot dead (Wattles, 2021). Investigations found that in addition to pilot errors, issues with the plane’s design were also to blame for the crash (Wamsley, 2021). The company still continued to use pilots for their test flights, despite the presence of automation technology to assist.

Virgin’s spacecraft first made it to space in late 2018, while also doing the same in 2019 with a crew member on board (Davenport, 2021). Branson announced that he would take the next flight after the third successful test which was scheduled for 2021. Jeff Bezos announced that he was going to go to space with his Blue Origin craft on July 20, 2021, which prompted Branson to hasten his launch to July 11, nine days before Bezos (Wamsley, 2021). This raised safety concerns within the industry because Virgin had only been successful thrice, while the launch date had been hastened despite potential hazards (Wattles, 2021). During the flight, the spacecraft veered off its designated course, but the pilots kept on going despite it risking the mission and ignoring the FAA and organizational safety regulations (Schmidle, 2021). Since Branson himself was aboard the flight, it is not clear whether the pilot’s decision was motivated by his pressures or the organizational culture that would risk safety for the mission’s success.

Objective

The main objectives of the study are to identify Branson’s role in the various crises that have been facing his space mission. It is clear that there are various variances in the Virgin Galactic operation, while the organizational and personnel conduct suggest that Branson’s leadership may have an influence on the outcomes.

Methods and Approaches

Data will be collected from various articles written in credible news sources, and the evidence will be evaluated to identify whether Branson’s leadership played any role in the mishaps facing the organization and its space mission. The study will apply a qualitative approach to the data collection and analysis.

Leader Analysis

Richard Branson was the leader during the whole period of Virgin Galactic’s existence and was therefore the leader during its various crises. Branson is known for being a flamboyant leader who is creative and daring enough to try anything (Davenport, 2021). His leadership and innovation have resulted in a culture of entrepreneurship and creativity in the company, but have also led to risky behavior, especially in terms of safety. Branson chose to go to space despite the spacecraft not being fully safe in order to beat his competitor, which could suggest that his leadership may have influenced the pilot’s decision to keep going despite warnings (Schmidle, 2021). Branson’s leadership style may have pushed the pilots beyond their limits despite safety concerns.

Conclusion and Recommendations

While Branson’s leadership has led to innovation and entrepreneurship in the organization, it is crucial that the leader prioritizes the safety of his staff and the public by being more thorough in such a safety-sensitive industry as commercial space travel.

References

Amos, J. (2021). Virgin Galactic flights grounded over Branson spaceflight ‘mishap’. BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-58421796

Antczak, J. (2020). Branson’s Virgin Orbit fails on first rocket launch attempt. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-05-branson-virgin-orbit-rocket.html

Davenport, C. (2021). Richard Branson prepares to take his daredevil act to space with Virgin Galactic… and beat Jeff Bezos. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/07/09/richard-branson-virgin-galactic-space-dare-devil/

Schmidle, N. (2021). The red warning light on Richard Branson’s space flight. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-red-warning-light-on-richard-bransons-space-flight

Wamsley, L. (2021). Bezos vs. Branson: The billionaire space race lifts off. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/07/11/1014581747/bezos-vs-branson-the-billionaire-space-race-lifts-off

Wattles, J. (2021). Richard Branson is taking a big risk going to space. CNN Business. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/07/tech/richard-branson-space-flight-risk-scn/index.html