Virgin Galactic Scaled Composites pilot Mike Alsbury will be among the names added to the Space Mirror Memorial at Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex after a unanimous decision by the Astronaut Memorial Foundation on Monday.

The foundation had been reviewing the criteria to add Alsbury, who died during a 2014 test flight of SpaceShipTwo, for the past four and a half years, AMF CEO Thad Altman told FLORIDA TODAY.

The previous criteria, which only allowed for astronauts who had died during flying or training for government-sponsored space missions, prevented Alsbury from making the list.

On Monday, the foundation decided to change the criteria to not only include government-sponsored missions, but also private spaceflight.

"This makes an important change to our 'criteria,' therefore allowing including of Virgin Galactic (Scaled Composites) test pilot Michael Alsbury to be memorialized," Eileen Collins, retired NASA astronaut and chairman of the committee reviewing Alsbury's situation, told FLORIDA TODAY. "AMF acknowledges the important contributions of the private sector to the future of our nation's space program."

As of now, it only includes professional crew members in exploratory or experimental flights, meaning any paying passengers or space tourists will not be considered, Collins said.

For those to be considered to meet the private spaceflight criteria, the person must be a required crew member as defined by the Federal Aviation Administration, the spacecraft must be licensed by the FAA and the purpose of the mission has to be exploratory or experimental, specifically excluding flights carrying spaceflight tourists.

However, the board of directors still has final authority on all names that go on the mirror, Collins said.

There are currently 24 names on the memorial at KSC, which include the Apollo 1 crew as well as the crew members for Challenger and Columbia. With the addition of Alsbury, there will now be 25.

"His sacrifice is worthy in being placed on that memorial," Altman said.

The board is now working on getting Alsbury's name on the mirror. The goal is to have a ceremony and his name engraved on the memorial around the time of Oct. 31, which would be the fifth anniversary of his death.

"The AMF Board feels Michael's contributions are worthy of remembrance, as he gave his life in the furtherance of the mission of space exploration," Collins said. "Michael's life story will be remembered by future generations, and be an inspiration to those who seek to explore the unknown."

Contact Jaramillo at 321-242-3668 or antoniaj@floridatoday.com. Follow her on Twitter at @AntoniaJ_11.