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 signed a contract with the Italian Air Force in 2019-10-01 for a dedicated research and training flight that is set to be the last of the three upcoming SpaceShipTwo flights scheduled for 2021.
The Italian Air Force research and training flight will produce $2,000,000 in revenue for Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic completed its third spaceflight on Saturday, 2021-05-22.
Virgin Galactic’s third spaceflight was the first human spaceflight launched from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic tested upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls and validated EMI reductions on the Unity21 flight.
Virgin Galactic traced the December 2020 aborted flight ignition problem to electromagnetic interference from a new flight computer system and spent several months correcting the issue.
Virgin Galactic intends a fourth 2021 flight to be a fully commercial flight for the Italian Air Force and stated that the flight will generate $2,000,000 in revenue, or $500,000 per seat.
Virgin Galactic plans a third 2021 test flight to include founder Richard Branson as a passenger.
Virgin Galactic confirmed plans for the 2021-05-22 test flight on 2021-05-20 after addressing a potential maintenance issue with WhiteKnightTwo.
Virgin Galactic expects the second 2021 flight to carry four employees plus two pilots to test the passenger cabin and flight procedures.
The Italian Air Force flight will generate $2,000,000 in revenue for Virgin Galactic.
The 2021-05-22 flight will be Virgin Galactic's first powered flight since a December powered test flight was aborted around the time of engine ignition.
Eight space-focused SPACs have announced mergers since Virgin Galactic’s 2019 SPAC deal.
Virgin Galactic maintained the same February 2021 test flight schedule calling for two powered test flights with company personnel, followed by a third powered flight with company founder Richard Branson, and then a commercial flight for the Italian Air Force before a fall maintenance period.
Virgin Galactic reported a net loss of $130,000,000 in the first quarter of 2021 and had $617,000,000 of cash and cash equivalents on hand.
The Italian Air Force flight will generate $2,000,000 in revenue for Virgin Galactic, equating to $500,000 per seat.
Seven space SPACs have announced mergers since Virgin Galactic’s 2019 acquisition by Social Capital Hedosophia.
Of the space SPAC deals announced after Virgin Galactic’s 2019 acquisition, six were slated to close in 2021.
VSS Imagine was built at Virgin Galactic’s facility in Mojave, California.
Since the beginning of the 2021 fiscal year there have been six commercial launch mishaps, including three Starship test flights that ended in explosion upon or shortly after landing; a failed Falcon 9 landing at sea during a successful launch on 2021-02-15; Astra’s Rocket 3.2 launch in December that just missed reaching orbit; and an aborted December test flight of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo.