VIRGIN GALACTIC
VIRGIN GALACTIC SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHES HUMANS TO SPACE
Virgin Galactic is a space tourism company that intends to offer suborbital flights into space to paying customers in 2022. The company was founded by Richard Branson, a British aerospace and music entrepreneur.
The starting date for flights has been pushed back several times. Branson originally predicted that Virgin Galactic would be flying customers into space by 2007. Development issues, a 2007 fatal explosion during a ground test and a tragic test-flight crash in October 2014 contributed to the delay.
On Dec. 13, 2018, the company passed an important milestone when its VSS Unity test vehicle reached space — at least, according to one definition. The vehicle, a model known as SpaceShipTwo, reached an altitude of 51.4 miles (82.7 kilometers), which is slightly higher than what the U.S. Air Force considers the border between Earth's atmosphere and space when giving astronaut wings to its pilots. However, the more famous Kármán line defining where space begins is at 62 miles (100 km) up.
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NEW SEATS LISTED AT $450,000 FOR VIRGIN GALACTIC
Virgin Galactic delivered second-quarter results after the market closed on Thursday and announced that it will reopen ticket sales, with pricing beginning at $450,000 per seat.
“We have a purposeful range of product offerings in order to satisfy the different ways people will want to share this experience of private astronaut flights,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said during the company’s second quarter conference call.
The company also announced its next spaceflight test is targeting late September from Spaceport America in New Mexico, carrying members of the Italian Air Force.
Shares of Virgin Galactic rose 5% in after-hours trading from its close of $31.53.
Virgin Galactic reported an adjusted EBITDA loss of $56 million in the second quarter, just above the loss of $55.9 million in the prior quarter. It generated $571,000 of revenue in the second quarter, coming from the scientific research experiments onboard its May spaceflight test.
The company flew two spaceflight tests during the quarter, with the first marking its debut from Spaceport America in New Mexico. The second flight carried founder Richard Branson and three other mission specialists to test the vehicle’s cabin. CREDITS: CNBC
