Q&A with George Whitesides, CEO of Virgin Galactic

Virgin Orbit completed a captive carry flight of its liquid-fueled air-launched rocket Sunday over the Pacific Ocean in what the company described as its final development test before the small satellite launcher’s first mission to space.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo rocket plane crashed during a powered test flight over California’s Mojave Desert on Friday, leaving one pilot dead and another seriously injured.

The year ended with a deluge of big news, reminding us of the risks of spaceflight and the thin margins between success and failure on the final frontier. 2014 was also a year of breakthroughs in the exploration of the solar system and the future of human spaceflight.