spacetoday.net: Virgin Galactic delays resumption of commercial flights to 2027

Posted: Sun, Aug 16, 2026, 10:54 AM ET (1454 GMT)
Virgin Galactic has pushed the start of commercial flights of its new suborbital spaceplane into 2027. The company said in an earnings call Wednesday that the first commercial flights of its new vehicle, previously planned for the fourth quarter of this year, will instead begin in February 2027. Virgin said the slip was caused by "hundreds of relatively small but important installation tasks" that took longer than expected to complete. The company said that despite the delay, it expects that vehicle and a second spaceplane under construction to be flying at least 10 times a month by the end of the second quarter of next year. Virgin Galactic added it also sold out a tranche of tickets it offered at $750,000 each. It will sell another batch of tickets later this year at a higher price.