Source: AFP
Virgin Galactic is poised on Saturday for its final space flight before going on a two-year hiatus from commercial operations to upgrade its fleet as the company seeks to finally turn a profit.
The “Galactic 07” mission is scheduled to launch at approximately 8:30 AM. mountain time (1430 GMT) from the company’s base at Spaceport, New Mexico, a spokesman said.
A huge transport plane takes off from a runway, gains altitude for about 50 minutes, and then releases under its wings a space plane that soars at supersonic speed to the edge of space, where passengers can enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness and to admire the Earth. curve.
Two pilots and four private astronauts will be on board. One of them is Tuva Atasever, a Turkish space agency astronaut whose position was awarded through another space company, Axiom, while the names of the other three will likely be revealed later.
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It will be the seventh commercial flight for the company founded in 2004 by British tycoon Richard Branson, in an emerging suborbital tourism market where its main competitor is Blue Origin, owned by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos.
It will also be the last flight for its current spaceplane, called VSS Unity, which it plans to replace with two next-generation “Delta Class” craft under construction in Arizona, with test flights expected in 2025 before commercial operation in 2026.
The future of the company is at stake as it seeks to finally enter the black. Virgin has been burning through cash, losing more than $100 million in each of the past two quarters, with its stock standing at $867 million at the end of March.
It also laid off 185 people, or 18 percent of its workforce, late last year. Its shares currently trade at 85 cents, up from $55 in 2021, the year Branson himself took off, garnering global headlines.
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Although similar in appearance to the Unity, Delta’s ships will carry six passengers, compared to the current four. Seat prices will be set at $600,000 and up to 125 flights a year are planned, the company says, hoping to turn its fortunes around.
Some, however, are skeptical.
“Virgin Galactic investors can look forward to owning a stock that will generate essentially zero revenue for the next 18 to 30 months — and that’s if all goes as planned and the Delta program isn’t delayed,” The Motley Fool. to investors this week.
Blue Origin, which launches on a small suborbital rocket, resumed crewed flights in May after its own hiatus of nearly two years, although it ran into an anomaly with one of its three landing parachutes failing to fully inflate, which could to delay the next shipment.
Source: AFP