Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) said it expects two spaceflights out of New Mexico's Spaceport America in the third quarter of 2023 and three in the fourth quarter, following the space tourism company's first private astronaut flight planned for later this month.
Doug Ahrens, Virgin Galactic's chief financial officer, said during the company's Q2 earnings call Tuesday that those five flights would be a mix of private astronaut and research missions. Virgin flew its first commercial research mission in late June with a crew of two Italian Air Force officers and one Italian researcher, a flight that had been delayed for years.
It's now readying for its first private astronaut flight with three passengers, alongside a Virgin Galactic astronaut instructor, set to fly into the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere on board its spaceship, VSS Unity. Virgin announced in mid-June the window for that flight opens Aug. 10.
The three private passengers on that astronaut mission, dubbed "Galactic 02," are:
- Jon Goodwin, an 80-year-old man who competed in the 1972 Munich Olympic games.
- Keisha Schahaff and Anastasia Meyers, a mother-daughter duo from the Caribbean country Antigua and Barbuda who won seats on VSS Unity in a draw that raised funds for the nonprofit Space for Humanity, per a July 17 news release from Virgin Galactic
Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic's CEO, said on Tuesday's earnings call around 800 people currently have reservations for seats on future Virgin spaceflights, which he said is about a four-year backlog at the company's expected cadence of one flight per month. It's saving roughly 100 of its first 1,000 commercial seats sold for research and scientific experiments, Colglazier said.
Private astronaut missions are expected to bring in around $800,000 in revenue per flight for the company when fully occupied with four private passengers, Ahrens, Virgin's CFO, said on the call. He added the company pulled in approximately $2 million in revenue in the second quarter and expects revenue of around $1 million in both the third and fourth quarter of 2023, with capital expenditures of between $10 million and $15 million in the third quarter.
The bulk of Virgin's growth in capital expenditures comes from the construction of the company's spaceship assembly facility near Phoenix, Arizona and technology used in the design process for its Delta-class spaceships, Ahrens said. Virgin first announced the assembly facility last summer.
Those Delta-class vehicles are set to be the next generation of Virgin Galactic spaceships, enabling the company to fly more often once operational. Colglazier, Virgin's CEO, has previously laid out a timeframe that would see initial testing of Delta-class spaceships in 2025 and the first of those spaceships in commercial service by 2026. He said Tuesday that timeframe hasn't changed; Virgin's Arizona assembly facility is projected to be operational next year.
While general sales for seats on board VSS Unity are on pause, Colglazier said Virgin could reopen sales in "successive tranches" once the company's Delta-class ships are closer to service.
"You're going to see us, I'd say, use these early flights to add confidence in our system, to add confidence in the safety of human spaceflight on suborbital journeys; I think you're going to hear excitement — really impressive excitement — from the people who fly as the stories come back," Colglazier said during the earnings call. "That combination is purposeful for us because it will build confidence in this new industry, confidence in what this could be and aspirations and excitement to come.
"So, we're going to let that build a little while because we have a backlog that's a little longer than we would prefer," he continued.
Colglazier added that issuing ticket sales in chunks would help Virgin manage the price of seats. It currently costs $450,000 for a spot on board VSS Unity, with private astronaut tickets only available through a partnership with Virtuoso, a luxury and experiential travel company that Virgin partnered with in July 2022. The space tourism company is still selling spots on VSS Unity for research missions, Colglazier said.
Shares of Virgin Galactic stock (NYSE: SPCE) closed at $4.14 Tuesday. Shares had dipped below $4 in after hours trading, as of 5 p.m. MST.
