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Virgin Galactic completes third spaceflight of VSS Unity

Virgin Galactic completes third spaceflight of VSS Unity

Sir Richard Branson stands on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) ahead of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) trading in New York, U.S., October 28, 2019.

Richard Branson Virgin Galactic IPO NYSE

Virgin Galactic took a step closer to completing development of its space tourism system on Saturday, successfully flying its first spaceflight in more than two years.

The company’s spacecraft, named VSS Unity, was carried up to an altitude of about 44,000 feet by a carrier aircraft called VMS Eve. The aircraft then released the spacecraft, which fired its rocket engine and accelerated to more than three times the speed of sound.

After performing a slow backflip in microgravity at the edge of space, Unity returned through the atmosphere in a glide, landing back at the runway of Spaceport America in New Mexico that it took off from earlier.

“Now in space,” the company tweeted during the flight.

Pilots C.J. Sturckow and Dave Mackay flew Unity. The pair have previously flown to space, as well as fellow Virgin Galactic pilots Michael “Sooch” Masucci and Mark Stucky and chief astronaut trainer Beth Moses, who have each been given astronaut wings after the company’s first two spaceflights.

The U.S. officially consider pilots who have flown above 80 kilometers to be astronauts. 

Virgin Galactic pilots walk to the company’s SpaceShipTwo Unity spacecraft, attached to the jet carrier aircraft Eve.

Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft Unity is designed to hold up to six passengers along with the two pilots. The company has about 600 reservations for tickets on future flights, sold at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 each.

The spaceflight is the company’s first since February 2019, and its third to date. Virgin Galactic flew two spaceflight tests from its development facility in California’s Mojave Desert, before moving to its operational base in New Mexico. The company expected to clear some or all of its remaining Federal Aviation Administration milestones with this flight, setting it up to receive a key license needed to conduct regular spaceflights.

Unity also carried NASA-funded payloads on this mission, under the agency’s Flight Opportunities program.

Shares of Virgin Galactic climbed 22% over the past two days of trading after the company announced plans for the spaceflight test, avoiding a possible maintenance issue that threatened to delay the flight.

The spaceflight is one of four remaining for Virgin Galactic to finish development of its SpaceShipTwo rocket system. The second spaceflight test will carry four passengers to test the spacecraft’s cabin, while the third test is planned to fly founder Sir Richard Branson.

The company’s test flight program has been delayed substantially over the past few months. Saturday’s spaceflight was a redo of a December attempt that was cut short by an an electromagnetic interference issue, and the company’s promised beginning of commercial service has been pushed back from mid-2020 to early 2022.

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Virgin Galactic inventory drops after doable delay to spaceflight exams

Virgin Galactic stock drops after possible delay to spaceflight tests

The Virgin Galactic spaceship outside of Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s stock fell Tuesday on high trading volume, with the company’s next space flight test – and its broader path to launching commercial flights – potentially further delayed.

The space tourism company gave an overview of the progress in repeating the space test, which was canceled in-flight in December. While the company says it has now completed repairs to an issue with its VSS Unity spacecraft, an unexpected potential maintenance issue was identified with the VMS Eve carrier aircraft after test flights last week.

Virgin Galactic said the issue in question is scheduled for maintenance in October, but the company is currently analyzing whether maintenance needs to be done now – which would likely further delay the space test schedule. The company planned to rerun the spaceflight in May but now says the timing is “currently under evaluation”.

“We’ll be back in the market next week with an update on the flight schedule for our next flight,” said Mike Moses, president of space missions and security for Virgin Galactic, during the company’s conference call.

Virgin Galactic’s stock fell as much as 20% in trading from its previous closing price of $ 17.95 per share before recovering some of the losses to trade 9%. The stock, which was halted by the NYSE for five minutes due to volatility shortly after opening, exceeded its daily average volume within the first half hour of trading on Tuesday.

The lows of the decline took Virgin Galactic stock below $ 15 per share – its lowest level in nearly a year – and continued to add to the stock losses since hitting a high of over $ 60 per share in February.

Virgin Galactic has four test flights left before development of its SpaceShipTwo system is complete.

Meanwhile, stock losses have accelerated after delays in the first of these four space flights, as well as after sales of shares by Chairman Chamath Palihapitiya, founder Richard Branson and Cathie Wood’s new space ETF. The stock also fell after Jeff Bezos’ company Blue Origin announced plans to launch the first crew flight of its space tourism rocket on July 20. UBS cautioned against removing Virgin Galactic’s first mover advantage.

The start of Virgin Galactic’s commercial service, which is expected to begin in 2020 when the company completed its SPAC merger, has been postponed to early 2022.

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Virgin Galactic SPCE shares drop after delaying subsequent spaceflight take a look at

Virgin Galactic SPCE shares drop after delaying next spaceflight test

Virgin Galactic’s spaceship Unity prepares for flight.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic shares fell after the company postponed its next space test scheduled for this weekend on Friday.

“We have pushed ahead with our pre-flight preparations and during this process decided to allow more time for technical reviews. We are working to determine the next flight opportunity,” the company said in a statement.

Virgin Galactic’s shares are up more than 450% since the company’s IPO in October 2019. The market valuation is now nearly $ 14 billion – despite the company’s lack of significant revenue and steady quarterly losses. Investor speculative trading to date relies on Virgin Galactic making progress in completing its development program and commencing commercial flights. Updates and delays have a significant impact on the daily fluctuations in the stock.

On Friday, shares fell more than 11% in trading from the previous close of $ 59.41.

The stock was up 13% the day before after a notice from the FAA indicated that the spaceflight test should start as early as Saturday. The company confirmed on Thursday that it had “made good progress with our flight preparations,” but stated at the time that the flight attempt was still pending.

A technical review can be done for a variety of reasons, from checking the hardware to checking the software. The delay can therefore range from days to weeks, depending on the severity of the problem.

The upcoming space test is a replica of the December attempt that the company abandoned during launch. Virgin Galactic spent two months analyzing the cause of the demolition and conducting soil tests. The test flight should review “the corrective actions completed”.

While there will only be two pilots on board, the flight is expected to be the first of three in a row as the company plans to complete development of its spacecraft system.

Earlier this week, UBS downgraded the stock to neutral, referring to the stock’s jump earlier in the year. UBS said in a notice to clients that “we are aware of a rating that appears full”, although upcoming test flights form an appealing “catalyst chain”.

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Virgin Galactic shares pop as firm plans to redo spaceflight take a look at as early as Feb. 13

Virgin Galactic SPCE stock drops after aborted spaceflight test

SpaceShipTwo “Unity” on the runway after an abandoned space test on December 12, 2020.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic is preparing for the next space flight attempt. The company announced on Monday that it will repeat its canceled flight test in December on February 13th.

The space tourism company said one of the main goals of the space flight test will be “to test the remedial actions that have been completed since … the on-board computer stopped the rocket motor firing”.

“The team has since performed root cause analysis, completed the necessary corrective work and conducted extensive ground tests. The next phase will be to evaluate and verify this work during a missile flight,” Virgin Galactic said in a press release.

Virgin Galactic’s shares rose up to 9% in premarket trading from the previous close of trading.

Virgin Galactic will also pursue each of the original goals of the December flight test, “including evaluating elements of the customer’s cabin, testing spacecraft-to-ground live-stream capability, and evaluating the improved horizontal stabilizers and flight controls during the boost phase of the In flight, “said the company.

Following the flight test, Virgin Galactic said it would “conduct a comprehensive data review” to provide “information on the next steps in the flight test program.” Prior to the canceled December flight, Virgin Galactic had expected to conduct three remaining space flight tests before launching commercial flights. The second and third space flight tests were previously planned for the first quarter of 2021.

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Virgin Galactic SPCE inventory drops after aborted spaceflight take a look at

Virgin Galactic SPCE stock drops after aborted spaceflight test

SpaceShipTwo “Unity” on the runway after an abandoned space test on December 12, 2020.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic shares fell in trading Monday after the space tourism company canceled its final space flight test mid-launch on Saturday because of an engine ignition problem.

“The flight did not reach space as planned. After being released from its mothership, the spacecraft’s on-board computer monitoring the rocket motor lost connection. As planned, this triggered a fail-safe scenario that deliberately stopped the rocket motor from igniting.” Incident, our pilots flew back to Spaceport America and landed gracefully as usual, “said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, in a statement.

The company expects to repeat the space flight attempt from its operational base at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Colglazier said Virgin Galactic is evaluating the data from the test and not saying when it is expected to be ready to go again. The company said it had several rocket engines “ready” on site and would “check the vehicle and get back on flight” soon. “

Virgin Galactic shares fell 15% in trading from the previous close of $ 32.04.

“Although the test flight this weekend wasn’t a success, that’s the silver lining [Virgin Galactic] was able to prove that the built-in fail-safe scenarios worked properly [SpaceShipTwo] slide safely back to earth without endangering the safety of people on board. Successfully triggering a resilient scenario should help allay some investor concerns about the risk of a catastrophic event [Virgin Galactic] begins commercial operations, “wrote Credit Suisse analyst Robert Spingarn in a statement to investors on Monday.

Credit Suisse has an outperform rating for the share with a price target of USD 26.

Saturday’s flight was the first of three remaining space tests the company plans to conduct to complete development of its spacecraft system. The third will wear founder Sir Richard Branson. The impact of the canceled test on Virgin Galactic’s flight schedule remains to be determined. The Branson flight was previously scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

Additionally, Virgin Galactic’s Saturday spaceflight attempt was the company’s first in nearly 22 months, with its previous spaceflight in February 2019 from the Mojave Air and Spaceport in California. In the meantime, the company has moved from its manufacturing and development facilities in Mojave to Spaceport America.

– CNBC’s Michael Bloom contributed to this report.

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Virgin Galactic aborts spaceflight try in New Mexico

Virgin Galactic aborts spaceflight attempt in New Mexico

Virgin Galactic’s carrier aircraft releases its Unity spacecraft during a glide test.

Virgo Galactic

Virgin Galactic’s most recent space flight test was halted after the engine of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle “Unity” failed to fully ignite while attempting to take off over New Mexico on Saturday.

While there were no passengers on board, Unity was piloted for the flight by CJ Sturckow and Dave Mackay. Virgin Galactic wanted to reach the edge of space for the third time, in its first space flight from its New Mexico operating base. The spaceship landed back on the runway at Spaceport America, about 50 miles north of the city of Las Cruces.

“The firing sequence for the rocket motor was not completed. The vehicle and crew are in great condition. We have several engines ready at Spaceport America. We will check the vehicle and fly again soon,” the company said in a tweet.

Virgin Galactic confirmed that the spacecraft had successfully returned on a glide flight to land at Spaceport America in New Mexico, where it took off under its carrier aircraft about an hour earlier. The company found that both pilots are “safe and sound”.

“Bike stop, SpaceShipTwo Unity,” Virgin Galactic said in a tweet.

An unofficial webcast hosted by space news site NASASpaceflight appeared to show that the spacecraft engine stalled after a brief shot. SpaceShipTwo was released under its carrier aircraft at an altitude of about 40,000 feet, with Unity’s engine igniting just before shutdown. Typically, the spacecraft is set free from the jet and then fires its rocket motor for more than a minute, reaching a speed about three times the speed of sound.

Virgin Galactic’s spaceflight attempt was the company’s first in nearly 22 months. The previous space flight attempt in February 2019 when Unity reached an altitude of almost 90 kilometers during a test launch from the Mojave Desert in California. The company is working to launch commercial service flights from Spaceport America, where it has relocated operations from its development and manufacturing facilities in the Mojave Air and Spaceport.

Saturday’s flight was the first of three remaining space tests the company plans to conduct to complete development of its spacecraft system. The third will wear founder Sir Richard Branson. The impact of the canceled test on Virgin Galactic’s flight schedule remains to be determined. The Branson flight was previously scheduled for the first quarter of 2021.

In addition to the two pilots, Unity’s flight on Saturday conducted microgravity experiments for NASA, awarded as part of the agency’s Flight Opportunities program.

Virgin Galactic has roughly 600 customer reservations on its books, most of which sold a few years ago at a price of $ 200,000 to $ 250,000 per ticket. The company plans to fully reopen ticket sales in 2021 after Branson’s flight, although it is not known how much tickets will cost after sales reopen. Company executives previously said that due to the high demand for tickets, Virgin Galactic expects to significantly increase prices on its first commercial flights.

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