Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. said it’s on track to take an Italian Air Force research crew to space in the second quarter of 2023, kicking off the company’s long-awaited commercial service.
(Bloomberg) — Billionaire Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. said it’s on track to take an Italian Air Force research crew to space in the second quarter of 2023, kicking off the company’s long-awaited commercial service.
The company will need to take several steps before it reaches the milestone, including ground testing of its primary spaceplane, VSS Unity, and carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, Virgin Galactic said Tuesday. It also plans to conduct a full-powered test flight with Virgin employees on board.
Virgin Galactic gave the update along with its fourth-quarter results, which were mixed. Revenue reached $869,000, higher than the $564,000 analysts expected. However, the company lost 55 cents a share, more than the 50-cents-a-share loss anticipated by Wall Street.
“Our near-term objective for commercial spaceline operations is to safely deliver recurring flights with our current ships while providing an unrivaled experience for private astronauts and researchers,” Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
The shares reversed a postmarket gain of as much 6.4% to fall 1.6% as of 5 p.m. in New York. The stock was up 65% so far this year, through Tuesday’s close, to $5.74 a share but down 90% from its February 2021 peak.
The company is aiming to deliver regular quick trips for customers on VSS Unity, which climbs to the edge of space after dropping from its carrier aircraft and then glides to a runway like a plane. Last year it reopened ticket sales to the general public at an increased price of $450,000. The first customers to pay for flights many years ago initially agreed to pay $250,000 per ticket.
Like others who are seeking to shuttle tourists to and from space, Virgin Galactic has faced setbacks. The company flew Branson to space on the VSS Unity in July 2021. A few months after that flight, the company announced it would begin a “planned vehicle enhancement and modification period” to upgrade its hardware, causing all flights to be grounded.
Most of the upgrades centered on VMS Eve, the company said. One of the biggest improvements has been equipping the aircraft with an entirely new launch pylon, which is used to attach the spaceship to Eve.
Work on both vehicles was completed last year and Virgin Galactic’s aircraft have started taking to the skies again. Eve — a giant twin fuselage plane that carries VSS Unity to its deployment altitude — conducted a test flight out of Mojave, California, on Feb. 15. On Feb. 27, it flew from Mojave to Spaceport America in New Mexico, the site where Virgin Galactic plans to conduct its commercial flights to space.
Now with Eve back in New Mexico, Virgin Galactic plans to ramp up validation testing. It will start by ground testing its vehicles, with its aircraft carrier and spaceplane mated together. After that, it will conduct a glide flight of Unity, in which the spaceplane is deployed from Eve and glides to a runway.
If those are successful, Virgin Galactic will conduct a full-powered test flight of Unity, with a crew of company employees on board – similar to the flight that Branson took. That flight will include final systems checks and validate the in-flight experience.
As of now, the plan is to start commercial service once that powered flight is complete.
(Updates with details of testing from first paragraph. An earlier version corrected date of VMS Eve flight to New Mexico.)
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