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.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
Virgin Galactic signed a cooperative agreement with Ente Nazionale per l’Aviazione Civile (ENAC) on 2024-12-12 to study the feasibility of operating Delta-class suborbital spaceplanes from Grottaglie Airport in southern Italy.
Virgin Galactic signed agreements with Italian companies Altec and Sitael in 2018 to examine flights from Grottaglie.
Virgin Galactic is building out an initial fleet of Delta-class suborbital spaceplanes that will operate from Spaceport America in New Mexico.
The first phase of technical and operational work for Virgin Galactic’s study of Grottaglie is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2025.
Nine women have flown on Virgin Galactic suborbital spaceflights that passed the 50-mile (80.5-kilometer) altitude used by U.S. government agencies for astronaut wings but fell short of the 100-kilometer Kármán Line.
Companies like Virgin Galactic are expected to benefit from the proposed rules allowing the export of commercial suborbital vehicles.
Virgin Galactic plans to raise money to speed up work on two additional Delta-class spaceplanes and a second mothership so they can enter commercial service in 2028.
Virgin Galactic previously contracted Aurora Flight Sciences, a Boeing subsidiary, to produce new motherships, but that agreement fell apart and led to dueling lawsuits between Boeing and Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic had planned to use revenue from operations of its first two Delta-class spaceplanes to fund development of future vehicles.
Virgin Galactic had revenue of $402,000 in the third quarter and a net loss of $74,500,000 for the quarter.
Virgin Galactic is proposing to raise $300,000,000 in additional capital to accelerate production of suborbital spaceplanes and a mothership aircraft.
Virgin Galactic dropped its suit against Boeing, elected to defend Boeing’s suit, finalized a settlement agreement on 2024-10-31, and had Boeing’s suit dismissed on 2024-11-04 according to its 2024-11-06 Form 10-Q filing with the SEC.
Virgin Galactic plans to begin design work on the second mothership in 2025, move into production in 2026, conduct testing in 2027, and enter commercial service in 2028.
Virgin Galactic needs to raise $300,000,000 to accelerate work on the additional spaceplanes and mothership while retaining flexibility on the timing of the raise based on existing cash.
Alan Stern conducted research on a Virgin Galactic suborbital flight in November 2023 alongside private researcher Kellie Gerardi to prepare for a future NASA-funded flight.
Virgin Galactic's Delta-class vehicles are expected to begin commercial flights in 2026.
Virgin Galactic announced it would retire VSS Unity to focus on developing the next generation Delta-class vehicle.
Virgin Galactic operates a commercial spaceport in New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic plans to operate three flights a week with Delta vehicles, compared to one Unity flight a month.
Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) completed its second spaceflight of 2024 and its 12th mission to date.