Fearless Bill Cullen has vowed he will still go to space with Richard Branson – despite the deadly test crash.
The Virgin Galactic boss was shocked when SpaceShipTwo broke up in mid-air on Friday, killing co-pilot Michael Alsbury in the Mojave Desert in California.
But former Apprentice star Bill insisted he is still ready to go up in space on the €200,000 trip – even if it is delayed a year.
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The 72-year-old said: “It’s a setback of course and a tragic one at that but it hasn’t changed my mind and Richard Branson is still going to go up first and hopefully I’ll be second.
“The crash was very tragic and it’s terrible to see but having said that Richard Branson has put hundreds of millions into the whole thing and made sure to have the best people working on it.
“It’s going to push the trip out another year or so as we were expected to go up in the next six months but we’ll have to wait for the investigations I’d imagine.”
Ex-TV3 star Bill was the first Irish person to sign up to blast off into space, paying €200,000 in 2004 to raise cash for Dublin’s Temple Street Children’s Hospital.
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However he may be beat there by Bob Geldof, who is signed up with rival XCOR Aerospace’s Lynx rocket plane operated by Dutch-based Space Exploration Corp.
But car seller Cullen insisted he isn’t worried that his life is now on the line.
“I was always interested in space as a kid and you’ve got to remember people have been doing things like this for centuries – otherwise how would you ever learn anything if you never went into the unknown?,” he told the Irish Mirror.
“I’m happy to go ahead as it’s not actually as dangerous as going all the way into space – we only go about 90 miles up and we’ll be back down in an hour or so.
“What happened last Friday happened but there are six other planes built and currently being tested so I’ll just have to wait now until we get the go-ahead again.”
