Virgin Galactic Takes Tourists on Historic Journey to the Edge of Space

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. has achieved a significant milestone as it successfully transported its inaugural private tourists to the outer limits of space. This accomplishment marks a significant step forward in Richard Branson’s ambitious endeavor to establish a “spaceline for Earth.”

The VSS Unity spacecraft reached space shortly before 9:30 a.m. local time Thursday, Virgin Galactic said in a live broadcast of the event about an hour after it lifted off from the New Mexico spaceport. The cruise mission, which offered passengers several minutes of weightlessness before landing back on solid ground, was the company’s second commercial flight after a recent exploratory mission.

“They are officially astronauts,” Virgin Galactic’s Sirisha Bandla, who was commentating during the flight, said on the live broadcast. “Welcome to space.”

The suborbital joyride spans nearly two decades of development and will allow Virgin Galactic to finally begin clearing the backlog of around 800 ticket holders who have been waiting for a ride into space. Virgin Galactic is competing against Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to sell trips to thrill-seekers who want to escape Earth’s gravity for a moment, the reason the company was founded.

Among the passengers were 80-year-old Jon Goodwin, a British former Olympian who has Parkinson’s disease, and Keisha Schahaff and Anastatia Mayers, a mother-daughter pair from the Caribbean who won their seats in a charity raffle. They were joined by two pilots and a Virgin Galactic support astronaut.

Virgin Galactic shares rose 1.8 percent to $3.44 as of 11:27 a.m. in New York, paring an earlier gain of as much as 3.8 percent. The stock had fallen nearly 3% this year through Wednesday and remains well below a 2021 peak above $55. It was publicly listed through a reverse merger with a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, in 2019.

The flight comes just over a month after Virgin Galactic finally began commercial spaceflight. That first flight, Galactic 01, was strictly a research mission. It involved a trio of Italian Air Force scientists working to create scientific payloads designed to exploit the microgravity environment of space.

Founded in 2004, Virgin Galactic originally promised to start flying passengers as early as 2007. In those early days, tickets were sold for $200,000, then increased to $250,000 when the company experienced delays. In 2014, a Virgin Galactic space plane crashed during a test flight, killing one test pilot and seriously injuring another, prompting the company to suspend ticket sales.

Virgin Galactic has experienced successes and failures since then. In 2018, the company reached space for the first time, and made headlines in 2021 when it flew Branson into space. But after the flight, Virgin Galactic decided to retire from space missions for nearly two years while it upgraded its vehicle fleet. It reopened ticket sales in 2022, at that time for $450,000.

Leader of defeat

Now the company has a daunting customer base to sort out. But even if those passengers are finally starting to see space, Virgin Galactic says it will be a few years before it sees a profit from its missions.

The company’s main aircraft at the moment is the VSS Unity, a space plane that was unveiled back in 2016. Unity is used for monthly space missions, while Virgin Galactic focuses on the development of the new Delta-class space vehicles. . These vessels, which are expected to start operating as early as 2026, will be optimized for easier refurbishment and faster turnarounds between flights, allowing for a higher frequency each year.

“There’s a small loss leader here with Unity,” Mike Moses, director of space line missions and security, said in a June interview. “But it’s important to show not only that we can do it, but to learn all the lessons that can be applied.”

Virgin Galactic doesn’t expect to see significant revenue for years. The company estimates that it will only bring in about a million dollars in revenue in each of the last two quarters. Earnings could be slightly higher if a research flight is thrown into the mix, since seats on those missions are about $600,000, the company said.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier told Bloomberg News in June that he’s confident Virgin Galactic can turn a profit if it can fly Delta on weekly trips to the edge of space.

While he admits that suborbital space travel will be a “capacity-constrained business” for some time, he hopes that as more private astronauts fly, they will inspire more customers to sign up.

“We need to normalize this industry,” Colglazier said. “It’s not normal for your neighbor to go into space. But once we get people through, it becomes normal.”