Virgin Galactic to bring tourists to space again by end of year
For a good two years, it was quiet around Virgin Galactic. For this year, the space company has announced flights into space again, with a new spaceship.
The spaceship Unity from Virgin Galactic
(Image: Virgin Galactic)
Virgin Galactic is back in business: The US space company has announced that it will resume its tourist flights into space. However, the company is charging significantly higher prices than before.
The company has almost completed the SpaceShip, the first spaceship of the new Delta class, said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier when presenting the figures for the fourth quarter and the entire past year: "With structural assembly set to finish over the next week or two, we expect to bring this ship into ground testing in April, which has it on track for our first spaceflight in Q4 2026."
At the same time, the company has made a limited number of tickets available for further space flights. However, Virgin Galactic is charging a significantly higher price: the trip to space costs 750,000 US dollars. Previously, it was 600,000 US dollars. The US space company is offering a total of 50 more space flights. The stock price subsequently jumped; currently, the price is back at previous week's levels.
Only five commercial flights so far
After many delays, Virgin Galactic started with its commercial, suborbital space flights in mid-2023. However, there could be no talk of a regular offering: only five flights were carried out, the last one at the beginning of 2024. Then it was over again, for financial reasons. At the end of 2024, the company announced that around 650 customers were waiting for their flight into space.
In the future, two spacecraft will be available; a second SpaceShip is expected to be completed next winter, Colglazier said. Ground tests for the first model should be completed in July. Then the SpaceShip will be brought to Spaceport America in the US state of New Mexico, from where it will launch into space.
The first glide tests are planned for the third quarter. This will be followed by two test flights with engines, one with two pilots and a payload for the US space agency NASA, and one with two pilots and six Virgin Galactic employees on board. At the same time, more pilots will be trained to be able to carry out more flights in the future.
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The SpaceShip is brought to an altitude of about 15.5 kilometers by a carrier aircraft designated Eve and released there. Then the spaceship starts its rocket engine and climbs further. Afterwards, the spaceship glides back to Earth without propulsion. The entire trip to space from launch to landing takes a little over an hour.
(wpl)
