Virgin Galactic Is Still in The Space Tourism Business
Many may have forgotten about Virgin Galactic due to numerous reasons. The space company that many people are aware of is SpaceX. Others may be aware of Lockheed Martin and its different space oriented initiatives.
There are others like Rocket Lab and Astra Space that are making progress, too. But Virgin Galactic is one that has been in the works for a while now. It is also one that had more public awareness due to it going public and having more publicity through its founders and backers.
Entrepreneurs like Richard Branson and investors like Chamath Palihapitiya were associated with Virgin Galactic. It has had a rough go at it over the past couple of years. It has failed to launch due to a variety of reasons and has been burning through cash. The company has been able to meet some milestones as of late.
Let’s take a look at Virgin Galactic and its involvement in the space tourism business.
Virgin Galactic Launched The Long Awaited Commercial Service
The good news is that Virgin Galactic was able to launch its commercial service. It was able to conduct one more test flight and then have its first commercial flight take place. This is a big deal because both of these flights went well.
This means that the company is well on its way to establishing itself as a potentially viable firm over the next two years. The firm aims to take passengers on its service on a monthly basis.
In further good news, the firm was able to bring in revenues of over $1.5 million, a substantial increase from the same timeframe a year prior. The next flight will take place on August 10th.
The bad news is that Virgin Galactic is still losing money. It lost over a $100 million in the previous quarter.
The Near Future Outlook for Virgin Galactic
The company is conducting research on expanding its fleet with the Delta Class spaceship, expected to take off by 2025. At the same time, it does have over 750 booked flights on its current service. The firm was able to sell these tickets at prices ranging from $200,000 to $450,000. A large portion of these tickets were sold in the lower range of $200,000 to $250,000.
That means that the company has over $200 million in spaceflight earnings that it can capture if it can meet its obligations.
The company still has a tough road ahead, a very tough road as it must manage current cash while pushing forward on research initiatives that help it to gain a solid foothold in the burgeoning industry.