The space tourism company Virgin Galactic Holdings, which was established by Richard Branson, said on Thursday that its long-awaited commercial spaceflight service will debut later this month. As a result of this news, the company’s shares increased by more than 55% in trading that took place after the bell.
According to the corporation, the first spaceflight, which will be referred to as “Galactic 01,” is scheduled to take place between June 27 and June 30.
The corporation has stated that “Galactic 02” will follow in the beginning of August, and that following that, monthly spaceflights are anticipated.
The corporation says “Galactic 01” will launch between June 27 and 30.
Because of setbacks in the introduction of the company’s commercial service, the value of a share of Virgin Galactic fell by more than two-thirds throughout the course of the previous year. Thursday’s aftermarket trading saw a rise in share price, which ended the day at $6.30.
In 2021, the business decided to delay its first customer voyage to the outskirts of space in order to complete a variety of spacecraft upgrades, which resulted in the suspension of flights of the spaceplane VSS Unity and its carrier plane.
However, the company announced in February that it had successfully finished a protracted process of upgrading its primary tourist spaceship, paving the way for the company’s first commercial launch. The price of the company’s stock has increased by around 16% since the beginning of 2023.
According to Virgin Galactic, the first commercial voyage would transport three crew members to perform research on microgravity. These crew members will come from the Italian Air Force and the National Research Council of Italy.