"I've never seen such irresponsible innuendo and damaging innuendo," the British business tycoon told Britain's Sky News television, referring to critical press reports in Britain.
Branson wants to ferry wealthy customers to the edge of space, charging $250,000 per ticket, and the crash is expected to delay the program.
In an interview with CNN, Branson vowed to press ahead, once the cause of the crash was identified.
"If test pilots hadn't taken risks, we wouldn't have had the 747. Two blew up in early days of airline travel. Now airline travel is as safe as anything," he said.
"We've got to go through the difficult testing stage of creating a space line in order to make it safe for travelers who want to travel on that space line in the years ahead. We will persevere and will succeed."
He also reiterated that he and his son will be on the first commercial flight.
"There is no way I would ask others to travel on Virgin Galactic unless I'd been the first to go myself. Therefore I will certainly be the first to travel," he said.
The crash was the second disaster to rock the private sector space industry in less than a week, after an Antares rocket carrying supplies to the International Space Station exploded after takeoff in Virginia on Tuesday.
Experts say the accident will delay the advent of commercial space tourism by several years.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
