Virgin Galactic remains on track to commence commercial spaceflights aboard its Delta Class spaceships in 2026, with the space travel company seeking to raise US$300 million in funding to further accelerate its growth plans.In announcing the company’s third quarter results, CEO Michael Colglazier confirmed the company had completed initial flight-control testing for the new spaceships and was preparing to ramp up staffing at its factory in Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona to handle the delivery and assembly of major parts.“Our spaceship program remains on track to begin commercial operations in 2026, and with strong progress made on the Delta program, we now have the engineering capacity to advance design work on a second mothership, which will accelerate the next phase of growth for Virgin Galactic,” he said.Revenue from operations of its first two Delta Class spaceships, the first of which will start flying commercially in 2026, was originally expected to fund the development of future vehicles. But a funding raise would enable Virgin Galactic to to add vehicles to the fleet sooner that previously planned, Colglazier told a Q3 earnings call.
Injecting the resources into the development of two additional Delta-class vehicles and a second mothership would bring forward the date they could enter commercial service by two years to 2028.“The growth capital we plan to employ will allow Virgin Galactic to deliver a second mothership and two additional spaceships much earlier than if we were to fund these ships solely through organic growth,” Colglazier told the call.Meanwhile, a pause in commercial space flights was blamed for a dip in revenue to US$0.4 million for the quarter, compared to US$1.7 million in the third quarter of 2023.VSS Unity, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo class spaceship, was launched for the last time on 8 June. Galactic 07 was the company’s seventh commercial spaceflight. The suspension of operations came as the company decided to focus its efforts on the production of the new Delta Class spaceships.
