Virgin Galactic is set to launch commercial space flights this month

Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has announced it will finally begin commercial space operations later this month, ending a 19-year slog plagued by accidents and technical challenges.

The first commercial flight will take place between June 27 and June 30 and will carry three members of the Italian Air Force and Italy’s National Research Council to the edge of space to conduct experiments in microgravity, the company said on Thursday. It said the next flight was scheduled for early August, followed by monthly launches.

The planned launch comes two years after Wall Street enthusiasm peaked with the race between Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin to turn space tourism into a commercial reality.

Branson, aboard the first Virgin Galactic spacecraft to carry a full crew, beat the Amazon founder to nine days in space, but then saw his company take a back seat as regulators shut down the flight. Investigated a discrepancy reported during The company later said it was doing more work to “enhance” its rockets and launches, delaying its next test flight until April.

Blue Origin plans to begin commercial flights in 2021, but suspended the launch last September after seven flights when a rocket that was not carrying human passengers malfunctioned, triggering an escape system that caused Its passenger capsule was shut down.

Virgin Galactic has suffered a series of setbacks that have forced lengthy delays. Three employees of a contractor were killed while testing a rocket engine in 2007, and the company suffered another fatality in 2014, when a pilot died after a spacecraft broke up in mid-air. Went.

One of the first companies to go public through a special purpose acquisition company – a type of shell financing vehicle that later became popular with early-stage companies – Virgin Galactic predicted at the time of its listing in 2019 that it would Will generate revenue of $398mn. through 2022 and into 2021 broken down into profit based on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. With its spaceflight frozen in, it reported revenue of just $2 million last year and a net loss of $505 million.

Its shares had fallen to just over $4 this week, down from a high of more than $55, when Branson’s personal flight to the edge of space attracted widespread publicity.

Virgin Orbit, the Virgin founder’s other space company, filed for bankruptcy protection in April. The satellite launch business collapsed after failing to reach the frequency of launches it had targeted and unable to raise additional capital.