Will Virgin Galactic Abandon the Space Tourism Business?

In June 2024, space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) launched its Unity spaceplane with a planeload of space tourists for the last time. In the months since, the company has continued working on its new spaceplane, dubbed the Delta class.Expected to enter service sometime in 2026, the new Delta class should offer multiple improvements over Unity. For example, reconditioning and engine replacement requirements on Unity limited that spaceplane to flying no more frequently than once per month, but Delta will be able to fly twice per week. Also important for the company's revenue-generating potential, instead of the four passengers Delta could carry, Delta-class spaceplanes will be large enough to accommodate six paying passengers per flight. That's a 50% improvement in passenger capacity, times a ninefold improvement in launch frequency, yielding a potential 1,250% improvement in revenues, over and above any changes in ticket pricing. (Virgin Galactic's earlier tickets sold for less than $250,000 apiece, whereas tickets sold more recently have been going for $450,000 and up.) By my calculations, flying just one Delta-class spaceplane at full capacity, and as frequently as promised, could generate monthly revenues in excess of $22 million for Virgin Galactic -- versus just $1 million in revenue from early Unity flights.Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool