Virgin Galactic rolled out its next class of space vehicles on Tuesday ahead of its next attempt at a rocket-powered test flight from New Mexico. The Las Cruces-based company unveiled the SpaceShip III class of vehicles along with the VSS Imagine, a reflective space plane that is set to commence ground testing with glide flights this summer from Spaceport America in Truth or Consequences, according to a news release.
As testing begins on Imagine, manufacturing of the next vehicle in the new class, called VSS Inspire, will progress. The new vehicle "demonstrates progress toward efficient design and production, as Virgin Galactic works to scale the business," the release says. The company announced the next class of vehicles during its fourth quarter report from last month, when it delayed its next attempt at a rocket-powered test flight from Spaceport America until at least May.
The test flight, which will be conducted using its formerly announced VSS Unity vehicle, will follow an unsuccessful attempt in December when the company said an ignition sequence for a rocket motor did not complete. Virgin Galactic later said it "identified [electromagnetic interference] as the root cause of the rocket motor controller reboot. It then "uncovered additional EMI impacts during preflight preparations" for a second flight attempt in February, Business First reported.
The test flight is expected to be followed by others before commercial operations commence. While Virgin Galactic's commercial flights are to take place from Spaceport America, the company has mulled the use of other spaceports as well.
"Virgin Galactic spaceships are built specifically to deliver a new, transforming perspective to the thousands of people who will soon be able to experience the wonder of space for themselves. As a SpaceShip III class of vehicle, Imagine is not just beautiful to look at, but represents Virgin Galactic’s growing fleet of spaceships," founder Richard Branson said in a statement. The company intends to eventually conduct 400 flights "per year, per spaceport," the release says.
The company is the anchor tenant at the more than $220 million, taxpayer-funded Spaceport America, and has been working to fly paying customers since its founding in 2004. Virgin Galactic, which went public with an $800 million cash infusion in 2019, reported a net loss of $74 million for the fourth quarter. It had cash and cash equivalents of $666 million as of the end of December.
