Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. is a British-American spaceflight company founded by Richard Branson and the Virgin Group conglomerate, which retains an 11.9% stake through Virgin Investments Limited.

Headquartered in California with launches in New Mexico, the company develops commercial spacecraft and provides suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air-launched from beneath a carrier airplane, White Knight Two. Virgin Galactic's maiden spaceflight occurred in 2018 with its VSS Unity spaceship.

The company also spun off its under-development LauncherOne rocket, an air-launched satellite launch vehicle, to Virgin Orbit in 2017. Virgin Orbit was subsequently shutdown in 2023.

On 13 December 2018, VSS Unity made the project's first suborbital space flight, VSS Unity VP-03. Its two pilots reached an altitude of 82.7 kilometres (51.4 mi), entering outer space by U.S. standards. In February 2019, the project carried three people, including a passenger, on VSS Unity VF-01; the spacecraft reached 89.9 kilometres (55.9 mi) and one member of the team floated within the cabin. On 11 July 2021, Branson and three employees rode on VSS Unity 22 as passengers, the first time a spaceflight-company founder travelled on his own ship into outer space.

In February 2022, Virgin Galactic began selling tickets to the public for $450,000 apiece. The first such flight, Galactic 01, took place in June 2023. One year later, Unity made its final flight, Galactic 07; the company shifted focus to its Delta-class vehicles and a higher launch cadence.

In February 2025, a ticket for a seat was estimated to cost about $600,000.