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Branson's Virgin Galactic secures critical infrastructure exemption to operate during lockdown
Company has ambitions to launch tourists into space as early as this year
Sir Richard Branson's space tourism venture has secured special dispensation to continue operating throughout the coronavirus outbreak, despite the US states in which it operates closing down most businesses.
Virgin Galactic has been allowed to push ahead with its plans to start sending tourists into space as soon as this year since a small amount of government work that it does means it has been deemed “critical infrastructure”.
It comes as Sir Richard’s airline, Virgin Atlantic, has been locked in talks with the British Government on securing a bail-out of around £500m to weather the crisis.
The billionaire’s Virgin Group has a 59pc stake in Virgin Galactic, which it last month transferred from the US to the British Virgin Islands, a tax haven, in what it said was an “internal reorganisation” following its US stock market listing last year.
Although Virgin Galactic expects to make most of its money from charging wealthy individuals around $250,000 (£200,000) to travel on 90-minute suborbital space flights, it has government contracts to carry payloads into space and for engineering work.
Its New Mexico spaceport, from where it plans to send people to space, is run by a local authority. Virgin Galactic has a manufacturing base in the Mojave Desert in southern California.
Both states have implemented “stay at home” orders forcing non-essential businesses to close down.
Allowing the company to continue operating represents a reprieve since Blue Origin, run by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos, has secured similar dispensation. The company has said it hopes to send people into space this year, and is seen as Virgin Galactic’s key rival.
A spokesman said: “We are an aerospace manufacturer with defence and government contracts and therefore categorised in the critical infrastructure area.
“That said, we are taking all precautions, ensuring that the maximum number of our staff can work remotely, and that for anyone required in the factory during this time, we are following best practices for cleanliness and interpersonal separation.”
Virgin Galactic’s share price soared earlier this year, but has fallen by 55pc since a peak in February, valuing it at around $3bn (£2.4bn).