It’s disappointing that a Super Strypi rocket crashed off Kauai on Tuesday, taking the University of Hawaii’s HiakaSat satellite and 12 smaller satellites with it.

A successful launch of the experimental rocket, designed to economically carry small payloads into low Earth orbit, would have been a feather in the cap for UH’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and College of Engineering, and for the students and faculty who spent years on the project. We hope those involved will persevere, knowing that some failures are to be expected. After all, it’s extremely complex work: That old saying, “It’s not rocket science,” doesn’t apply here.

Virgin America’s Branson arrives safely this time

It was a high-profile, red carpet affair when Virgin America landed its inaugural flight here from San Francisco, just after noon Monday. Gov. David Ige and tourism execs were on hand to greet the passengers, most noticeably Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Group’s flamboyant founder. Virgin will fly the route once a day, for starters, and plans to add a San Francisco-to-Maui flight next month.

Branson’s safe and scheduled arrival Monday was in sharp contrast to 17 years ago, when he and two fellow adventurers made news when they had to ditch their hot air balloon into the ocean off Kahuku on Christmas Day 1998; they had been trying to circumnavigate the globe via balloon. This time around, “it was a much more pleasant journey,” Branson remarked. We believe him.