Virgin Galactic said Aug. 12 assrmbly of its first next-generation suborbital spaceplane has taken longer than expected, pushing back commercial flights to early 2027. Credit: Virgin Galactic
WASHINGTON — Virgin Galactic says it will not start commercial flights of its new suborbital spaceplane until early 2027, a delay of a few months.
In the company’s second-quarter earnings call Aug. 12, Virgin Galactic executives said they now expect commercial flights of their first Spaceship suborbital vehicle to begin in February 2027. In the company’s previous earnings call in May, it expected those commercial flights to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.
Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, said on the call the delay was not caused by one big issue but instead by many smaller ones during assembly of the vehicle.
“No single issue is driving the schedule push; rather, we have experienced modest time-duration extensions across hundreds of relatively small but important installation tasks involved in the first build of our new spaceship,” he said.
