Update: Virgin Galactic Halloween Crash Cancels Lady Gaga’s Wedding In Space

Lady Gaga and Virgin Galactic are trending on social media because the singer will cancel her wedding plans associated with a concert in outer space that she was due to perform in early 2015. Lately, Lady Gaga has been in the dumps, and there are reports that she has been depressed. Adding to her stressors, she will now need to change the location of her wedding from outer space to some place on Planet Earth.

The tragedy that led to Lady Gaga changing the place of her wedding stems from the explosion of a Virgin Galactic spacecraft in California. Lady Gaga had planned to marry in outer space on a similar spacecraft that was due to launch in 2015 before or after a song she would sing for the first time while weightless. The Virgin Galactic takeoff explosion has delayed Gaga’s space concert/wedding pending an investigation.

The owner of Virgin Galactic, Richard Branson, flew out to the crash site in the Mojave Desert of California to meet with Virgin Galactic staff concerning the tragedy on November, 1. BBC News published a statement from Branson.

“Sir Richard Branson has said he is ‘determined to find out what went wrong’ with Virgin Galactic test flight in which one pilot died and the other was badly injured. US investigators are beginning a probe into why a Virgin Galactic space rocket crashed over California’s Mojave desert on a test flight.”

On the Virgin Galactic website, a public statement was posted soon after the crash, stating that the other spacecraft they were testing, the WhiteKnightTwo, landed perfectly. The statement did not include what went wrong with the Virgin Galactic test flight.

“The Virgin Galactic team is cooperating with our partners at Scaled Composites and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as well as local authorities. We understand that the NTSB is scheduled to arrive in Mojave tomorrow morning (Saturday, November 1) to commence their investigation, which is expected to last several days.”

ABC News reports that this investigation could take up to a year, but Branson plans to push on with his Virgin Galactic plans to operate as a commercial spaceflight business that hosts entertainment acts.

According to Reuters, the pilot of October 31, 2014 Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo crash was Michael Alsbury, 39.

Richard Branson stated at a news conference on November 1, 2014, “We owe it to our pilots to find out exactly what went wrong… If we can overcome it, we will make absolutely certain that the dream lives on.”

The surviving pilot of the Virgin Galactic flight, Peter Siebold, parachuted during the explosion and was found within a mile of the fuselage. Reuters also states that the National Transportation Safety Board has a team investigators on the scene attempting to gather relevant details to the case.

Currently, experts are pointing to a new type of rocket fuel that was being used for the first time on the Virgin Galactic test flight. The new fuel used was explained as a nitrous oxide that ignites a solid plastic-type propellant. These details were indicated by Virgin Galactic chief executive, George Whitesides, and were said to perform perfectly fine in pre-tests.

On Tuesday, October 28, 2014, the Washingtonian reported that another commercial spaceflight company had a similar explosion to the one that Virgin Galactic experienced. The Antares rocket that was launched and built by Orbital Sciences exploded in Wallops Island, Virginia. It was carrying cargo intended for the International Space Station.

Gossip Cop reports that Lady Gaga and Richard Branson had spoken about her having a concert in outer space via Virgin Galactic, in addition to her wedding. Other celebrities had also planned outer space music concerts with Virgin Galactic.

According to ABC News, “Anyone who signed up for a chance at space travel, which costs as much as $250,000 per person, can have their money refunded. Several hundred people have already bought seats on future space flights, including Ashton Kutcher, Lady Gaga, and Justin Bieber. But Branson said Virgin Galactic, his company developing private space flight, has not used any of the money.”

This is good news for the 700-plus Virgin Galactic space tourists that Mashable reports are wondering what they will do with their tickets. Journalist Jim Clash told Mashable that he had bought a space tourism ticket with Virgin Galactic, and that the Halloween “crash left him in shock,” but that he was not going to give up on his chance to fly with Virgin Galactic in the future.

According to mid-September reports by Arabian Business News, Lady Gaga was invited to take part in a spaceflight concert by Virgin Galactic sometime after tests were run in late 2014. Lady Gaga had intended to use this concert as an opportunity to exchange vows with boyfriend, Taylor Kinney.

Now that the future of the first Virgin Galactic space tourist flight into outer space is unclear, Gaga may be unable to do the concert — and will lose her chance to get married because of it. Originally, a three-day hi-tech festival was set to take place featuring Lady Gaga playing a song in outer space after her wedding as part of the Zero G Colony Festival at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Earlier in 2014 when her outer space wedding with Virgin Galactic was discussed, Gaga said to The Mirror UK, “Performing in space is such an honor. I want to challenge myself to come up with something that will not only bring everyone together but will also have a message of love that blasts into the beyond.”

The accusations made by Lady Gaga News ?@TomyKMonster on October 31, 2014 on Twitter that “Virgin Galactic has stated they will NOT take anyone to space for at least 10 years, Lady Gaga’s performance in space has been canceled” have not been sourced or confirmed.

[All photos in this article are from social media, WikiMedia Commons, or the links referenced in this article.]