Michael Alsbury
| Michael Tyner Alsbury | |
|---|---|
| Commercial Astronaut | |
| Nationality | American |
| Status | Deceased |
| Born | 1975 |
| Died | October 31, 2014 (aged 38–39) Mojave Desert near Cantil, California |
|
Other occupation
|
Test Pilot |
| Missions | None |
Michael Tyner Alsbury (1975 – 31 October 2014) was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. He was killed on 31 October 2014 during test flight PF04 of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise.
Alsbury had been a flying enthusiast since childhood. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Alsbury was married to Michelle Saling for 12 years and had two children, aged 7 and 10 at the time of his death.
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 on the first powered flight for VSS Enterprise and SpaceShipTwo.
In 2013, he received the Ray E. Tenhoff Award for the most outstanding technical paper at the Society of Experimental Test Pilots symposium along with Mark Stucky and Clint Nichols.
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 was the co-recipient of the Ray E. Tenhoff Award from the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.
On 31 October 2014 Alsbury was test flying the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise with Peter Siebold. Pilot error resulted in the craft breaking up in-flight and a total loss of VSS Enterprise, which crashed in the California Mojave Desert. Alsbury was unable to exit the spacecraft, and his remains were found still strapped to his seat in the fuselage. The Co-Pilot, Peter Seibold survived. It was the ninth time that Alsbury had flown aboard the aircraft.
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