Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity Completes First Spaceflight In Over 2 Years

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc's SPCE VSS Unity spacecraft has completed its first spaceflight from New Mexico's Spaceport America, AP reports.

What Happened: Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson confirmed in a Twitter post that the two pilots and a research payload belonging to NASA had reached space.   

With pilots Dave Mackay and CJ Sturckow at the controls, the VSS Unity vehicle powered to a height of 55 miles and then glided back down to Earth. 

According to the report, the company is expected to clear its Federal Aviation Administration milestones with this flight, setting it up to receive the license needed to conduct regular spaceflights.

Virgin Galactic's spacecraft can hold up to six passengers along with two pilots. According to the BBC, Branson has more than 600 paying customers, including movie and music stars. Reservation tickets have been sold at prices between $200,000 and $250,000 each.

Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before. It flew two spaceflight tests from its development facility in California's Mojave Desert. 

Today's test flight had been delayed repeatedly. In December 2020, computer trouble caused by electromagnetic interference prevented the spaceship's rocket from firing correctly.  

Shares of Virgin Galactic climbed 22% over the past two days of trading after it announced the plans for the spaceflight test.

In April, Branson shed $150 million worth of his holdings, which was followed by Cathie Wood selling off 275,204 shares from her Ark Space Exploration and Innovation ARKX fund.

Why It Matters: Virgin Galactic aims for commercial operations to begin from early 2020 following testing and a few months of downtime for maintenance. Those tests will include a flight that will take Branson to the edge of space later this year.

Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk's SpaceX will launch billionaire Jared Isaacman along with sweepstakes winners as early as September. That should be followed in January 2022 by a flight by businesspeople to the International Space Station.

Amazon.com, Inc's AMZN CEO Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin launched a new capsule in January 2021 as part of testing as it aims to get its program for tourists, scientists and professional astronauts off the ground. The company is planning for liftoff of its first crewed flight on July 20, the Apollo 11 moon landing date.

Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic.