Richard Branson, the Virgin Galactic Ltd. founder who vowed a decade ago to make the company a pioneer in commercial space flight, stopped short of saying he would continue the quest after an experimental craft exploded during a test flight.

Branson, 64, told reporters today near the crash site in Mojave, California, that officials from Virgin Galactic and the National Transportation Safety Board would have to determine the cause of the crash before Virgin proceeds with its plans for commercial space travel.

Its fair to say that all 400 engineers who work here, and I think most people in the world, would love to see the dream living on, Branson said. I would say we owe it to our test pilots to figure out what went wrong.

Branson, the long-haired billionaire whose career has been defined by expanding his Virgin Group Ltd. into diverse lines of business such as records, an airline, mobile communications and railways, founded subsidiary Virgin Galactic in 2004 with the goal of offering suborbital space flights for tourists, science missions and launches of small satellites.

With the crash of SpaceShipTwo over the Mojave Desert yesterday, Branson and Virgin Galactic face the most significant setback in the history of commercial space travel. The crash killed one test pilot and seriously injured another.

Looking downcast at a press conference at Mojave Air and Space Port, where the doomed craft began its flight a day earlier, Branson said his quest for commercial space travel would be delayed at least until the investigation is complete.

We do understand the risks involved and we are not going to push on blindly -- to do so would be an insult to all those affected by this tragedy, Branson said. We are going to learn from what went wrong, discover how we can improve safety and performance, and then move forward together.

He said hes received e-mails from would-be passengers urging him to forge ahead.

I think theyve been patient today and will continue to be patient, he said.

An aide then whisked Branson away from the press conference, saying he would meet next with the companys 400 engineers.

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Branson Stops Short of Vowing to Continue Space Flights