Yes, Andy, aerospace travel pollutes and – like everything else – has been for the last 75 years or so and will continue to be the domain of well-heeled folks who want to compress time for their own needs with nary a consideration of their environs. Space travel, however, is more about the furtherance of human knowledge than mere recreation, more about science than immediate financial profit, and Branson knows that. Commercialization of space is the process of bootstrapping humanity into the wider heritage of Nature. Unfortunately like every other human endeavor, it will be filled with mistakes, misdirection, and greed, but it can also lead to the knowledge and resources to care for ourselves and our world(s).

It’s not a case of “Earth First, We’ll Use Up The Other Planets Later,” so much as the fact that space travel will evolve hand-in-hand with access to additional space-found material resources and technologies from which humankind will benefit in future generations. Terrestrial aviation has iterated from the curiosity of balloon flights to military observation to weapons platforms to air ambulances, medical cargo flights, SAR and space-borne environmental surveillance assets. This (particularly space exploration) represents the same kind of human initiative and species progress which took hominids out of primitive (as in, “something out there wants to eat me”) wilderness into communities, out of hunger to the understanding & production of reliable foodstuffs and cultural development, and finally across oceans in search of trade and material to perpetuate societies.

The technology to get off Earth and its impact thereon will be moderated by concomitant limits on available resources. We’re already running so low on oil that the USAF is well into a program to wean its fleets from petroleum (I cite them since you mention environmental responsibility in connection with aviation, and they’re kinda bigger than VG in every way).

The fact of Virgin Galactic’s hooking up with NOAA is right in line with Branson’s attitude about his enterprise, much in the same vein as Google’s recent investments in green technologies. The expansion of our common understanding and experiences upon and above the Earth invariably results from bold, controversial beginnings which devolve to the commonplace (albeit important) — stuff like printing, or maybe the revolutionary access to information made possible by these here Inter-webs on this computer thing.

With any luck, in less time than from here back to when our antecedents were clumsily exploring North America, our descendants will be using clean power generation and responsible farming and manufacturing tech in a more just world. Progress requires pressure. Ain’t nothin’ brings on more pressure and is less forgiving than space travel. Every detail has to be refined to [near] perfection – I think it was Michelangelo who said, “Trifles make perfection, and perfection is no trifle.” The manifold benefit of humanity in space, in terms of spin-offs, has long been established. Virgin Galactic is an early step to where we’re going, a stroke in the artwork of human experience.

Somebody’s got to do it, Andy. And, somebody’s got to keep reminding them to do it right, which is the great value of sites like this.