Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson, is a British-American spaceflight company focused on providing suborbital spaceflights to space tourists and researchers. As the world's first commercial spaceline, it develops and operates its own reusable spaceflight systems, including the SpaceShipTwo and WhiteKnightTwo. While the company is shifting its focus to Delta class vehicles for commercial service in 2026, its current partners include Redwire for manufacturing research payload lockers and it operates from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
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Virgin Galactic is developing its larger Delta-Class suborbital spaceplane.
Virgin Galactic expects to start flying its next-generation Delta Class suborbital spaceship by the end of the year.
Virgin Galactic expects Delta Class vehicles to be capable of a second flight every 48 hours or less.
Virgin Galactic designed its Delta Class spaceships to avoid being on the ground for two to three months between flights and to operate at a much quicker cadence.
Virgin Galactic’s Delta Class spaceships are six-passenger suborbital vehicles designed for high-frequency space tourism.
Virgin Galactic’s most recent suborbital human spaceflight mission was in June 2024, which was the last flight of the VSS Unity spaceplane.
Fire Arrow has established an advisory board that includes former Virgin Galactic Chief Pilot Dave Mackay, Alderman Professor Emma Edhem, and former QinetiQ Director Ian Beresford.
George Whitesides served as NASA Chief of Staff and as CEO of Virgin Galactic prior to his election to the U.S. House of Representatives.
George Whitesides previously served as NASA Chief of Staff and as CEO of Virgin Galactic before his election to Congress.
Virgin Galactic scheduled Delta-class spaceplane test flights to begin in the third quarter of 2026 with research flights in the fourth quarter and private astronaut flights possibly not beginning until 2027.
Virgin Galactic retired its SpaceShipTwo vehicle VSS Unity in June 2024 to focus resources on the Delta-class suborbital spaceplanes.
Virgin Galactic has an SS2 "Delta-class" spacecraft design.
Virgin Galactic must conduct flights of its SS2 "Delta-class" ships before those vehicles can be operational.
Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft use hybrid rocket motors that require replacement between flights.
Virgin Galactic's next-generation spaceship is designed to seat up to six passengers, is customizable, and will have one seat removed for the Purdue 1 mission to carry five crew members and create space for research lockers on a payload rack.
Purdue researchers prepared experiments that will be housed in research lockers for flight aboard a Virgin Galactic suborbital spacecraft dubbed Purdue 1.
The report recommends that Kazakhstan seek partnerships with NASA, SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, Blue Origin, and NASA Ames Research Center.
The suborbital space tourism market is effectively dormant through at least 2027 due to pauses by Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic suspended operations in June 2024.
After suborbital flights from Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, space tourism will seek new horizons.