Virgin Galactic’s last spaceflight before two-year pause

Virgin Galactic has been pioneering the suborbital tourism industry, offering customers the opportunity to experience a few minutes of weightlessness and witness the curvature of the Earth from the edge of space. On Saturday, the company successfully completed its final spaceflight before a two-year pause in commercial operations.

The flight, dubbed “Galactic07,” saw a massive carrier plane take off from the runway at Spaceport America in New Mexico. After reaching an altitude of approximately 44,500 feet (13,500 meters), the carrier plane released a spaceplane that soared at supersonic speed, accelerating to nearly three times the speed of sound (Mach 2.96).

Onboard were two pilots and two private passengers – Tuva Atasever, a Turkish space agency astronaut, and three others whose names were revealed after landing: Anand “Andy” Harish Sadhwani, a propulsion engineer at SpaceX, New York real estate developer and airplane pilot Irving Izchak Pergament, and Italian investment advisor Giorgio Manenti.

During the flight, Atasever wore specialized equipment to collect physiological data and examine the ability to administer accurate insulin doses in microgravity conditions. This data collection highlights Virgin Galactic’s commitment to advancing scientific research alongside its space tourism endeavors.

The successful completion of this flight marks the end of an era for Virgin Galactic’s current spaceplane, VSS Unity, which has carried out seven commercial flights since the company’s inception in 2004. As the company prepares to introduce two next-generation “Delta class” spaceplanes, it will pause commercial operations for two years to facilitate this transition.

Despite the successful completion of its final spaceflight before the two-year pause, Virgin Galactic faces significant challenges ahead as it seeks to turn a profit in the emerging suborbital tourism market. The company has been burning through cash at an alarming rate, losing over 0 million in each of the past two quarters, with its reserves standing at 7 million at the end of March.

In an effort to cut costs, Virgin Galactic laid off 185 employees, or 18 percent of its workforce, late last year. The company’s shares have also taken a nosedive, currently trading at 85 cents, a significant drop from the they were trading at in 2021 when Richard Branson himself garnered global headlines by taking a flight.

While the introduction of the new “Delta class” spaceplanes promises to carry more passengers (six compared to the current four) and potentially increase the number of annual flights to 125, some analysts remain skeptical about the company’s ability to turn its fortunes around. “Virgin Galactic investors can look forward to owning a stock generating essentially zero revenue for the next 18 to 30 months — and that is if everything goes as planned, and the Delta program doesn’t get delayed,” warned The Motley Fool in a recent note to investors.

Virgin Galactic’s main competitor in the suborbital tourism market, Blue Origin, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has also faced its share of challenges. After resuming crewed flights in May following a nearly two-year hiatus, Blue Origin experienced an anomaly with one of the three landing parachutes failing to fully inflate, potentially delaying future missions.

As the two companies navigate the uncharted territory of commercial space tourism, they must grapple with the significant financial and technical hurdles that come with pioneering an entirely new industry. The next few years will be crucial in determining whether Virgin Galactic and its competitors can successfully transform their ambitious visions into sustainable and profitable enterprises.