Virgin Galactic Postpones Commercial Suborbital Space Flights to 2023

Richard Branson's space company Virgin Galactic postponed the launch of commercial flights with space tourists once again. The next flight has been postponed until next year because of supply chain problems and hiring issues.

Virgin Galactic originally planned to begin commercial flights in Q4 of 2022, which was confirmed in February when it released its financial results for 2021. In the first-quarter earnings release from May 5, however, the company announced plans to begin commercial flights of its VSS Unity spaceplane in Q1 of 2023 after completing upgrades of the vehicle and VMS Eve, its WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft.

The company has about 800 registered customers on the list who want to go on a suborbital flight, even though the ticket price has increased significantly and is now $450 thousand. At the beginning of 2023, Virgin Galactic intends to bring the number of those wishing to fly into space up to 1,000 people, while the price for the tickets will not go up.