Space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic reveals new plane in bid to restart business

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Set us as preferred Virgin Galactic took a step toward reigniting its space tourism business when it rolled its newest ship out of the hangar Wednesday and flew it by carrier to its New Mexico spaceport for months of testing — with the company’s future riding on its success.The Tustin-based pioneer in recreational space travel retired its four-passenger VSS Unity in June 2024 after seven commercial flights over the course of a year that took some two dozen tourists and researchers to the weightless edge of space without mishaps.However, after racking up losses, the company decided to focus resources on its new six-passenger Delta class of ships, which Virgin Galactic has spent hundreds of millions developing and hopes to fly twice weekly.Business After years of hype, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic started commercial service Thursday with its first flight for paying customers — Italian researchers who conducted experiments.The company envisions a fleet that could generate billions in annual revenue and reported that 675 people had reserved flights at a cost of $750,000 a ticket by the end of last year.

It previously charged less per flight.Chad Anderson, principal of Space Capital, a venture capital firm with more than $1 billion under management, said the key is for its first new Delta class ship Apeiron to get through testing and up in the air after repeated delays.“Demand’s not a problem; they just need to get flying.It’s a question of whether they can do it every few days, like an airline,” said Anderson, whose firm’s investments include satellite, logistics and launch companies, including SpaceX.

After retiring Unity, Virgin Galactic envisioned flying its new ship this year, but it moved that target date forward to the first quarter of next year before recently pushing it again to the second or...