astronomy

Michael Alsbury

Michael Alsbury is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Alsbury rather than just read about it. In short: Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975 – October 31, 2014) was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. He died on October 31, 2014, during test flight PF04 of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise.

Key takeaways

Michael Alsbury belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Alsbury to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Alsbury from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael Tyner Alsbury (March 19, 1975 – October 31, 2014) was an American test pilot for Scaled Composites. He died on October 31, 2014, during test flight PF04 of the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo VSS Enterprise.

Personal life Michael was born to Rich and Linda Alsbury in Santa Clara, California, but grew up in Scotts Valley, California, graduating from Soquel High School as a valedictorian in 1993. He was an Eagle Scout, and also played soccer at a young age. Alsbury was a flying enthusiast since childhood, achieving his pilot's license at the age of 23. He graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering. Immediately out of college, Alsbury began work at Scaled Composites. He was married to Michelle Saling, whom he had met at Cal Poly, for 12 years and had two children, aged 7 and 10 at the time of his death, living in Tehachapi.

Career 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. 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 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. On October 31, 2014, Alsbury was test flying the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise with Peter Siebold. The craft broke up in-flight, resulting in 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 pilot, Peter Siebold, survived. It was the ninth time that Alsbury had flown aboard the aircraft.

Legacy

On November 4, 2014, episode 5 of BBC One's Human Universe, presented by Brian Cox, was dedicated to Alsbury, as it had a sequence on Virgin Galactic test pilot David Mackay. His name was added to the Space Mirror Memorial in 2020. He was posthumously awarded the FAA Commercial Astronaut Wings in 2021.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Alsbury

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Alsbury claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Alsbury before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Alsbury ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Alsbury

In research: Michael Alsbury appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Alsbury in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Alsbury is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1975 births, 2014 deaths, Accidental deaths in California, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Alsbury outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Alsbury in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Alsbury means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Alsbury out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Alsbury in simple terms?

Why does Michael Alsbury matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Alsbury?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Alsbury.