Virgin Galactic to resume tourism flights
May 18, 2026
Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism business says it will resume its commercial sub-orbital flights later this year.
Virgin Galactic said it remains on track, technically and financially, to start commercial flights of its next-generation suborbital spaceplane before the end of the year. Virgin Galactic says Q3 will see test flights re-start.
The news came during the operator’s Q1 financial report.
CEO Michael Colglazier said, “We’ve delivered the first of our new SpaceShips from our Assembly hangar to our Test-and-Launch hangar, ground testing of that SpaceShip is underway, and we remain on track to commence flight testing in Q3 and spaceflight in Q4 of this year. Spending continues to decline quarter by quarter, debt retirements are being made on or ahead of schedule, and cash balances are being maintained at appropriate levels as we work through the final quarters of our pre-revenue phase and prepare for the launch of commercial spaceflight operations.”
Revenue for the company during Q1 was extremely modest, at just $200,000 (and compared to $0.5 million in the first quarter of 2025, attributable to access fees related to future astronauts).
Net loss of $65 million, compared to an $84 million net loss in the first quarter of 2025, with the improvement primarily driven by lower operating expenses.
During April 2026, the Company generated approximately $52 million in gross proceeds through its at-the-market offering program and had approximately $87 million dollars remaining on the existing program. On April 30, 2026, the Company announced an offer to redeem $10 million of debt originally due in September of 2026 by issuing shares of its common stock. Upon the successful completion of this redemption, the remaining amount outstanding on the first lien notes due in December 2028 will be $202 million.
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