Virgin Galactic shares fell 15% on the news of the flight postponement
Richard Branson’s company announced that it was embarking on a program to improve the spacecraft and carrier aircraft and therefore postponed testing and the start of commercial flights;
According to Trading View data, Virgin Galactic(SPCE) shares fell by 15.3% on the postmarket on October 14 and, at a minimum, amounted to $20.38 per paper.
On Thursday, Richard Branson’s aerospace company announced that it had changed the test schedule, which will be postponed the start of commercial flights until the fourth quarter of 2022.
In October, Virgin Galactic will begin work on repairing and improving the spacecraft and carrier aircraft VMS Eve. A representative of Virgin Galactic told CNBC that this process would last from eight to ten months between June and August.
And only then will the Unity 23 spacecraft be able to rise into space again. After completing the improvement work, the company plans to complete the testing program of VMS Eve and the spaceship. Namely, it will conduct a test flight with a crew of four, including two representatives of the Italian Air Force.
Previously, I assumed that Virgin Galactic would launch the first commercial research mission with the Italian Air Force in mid-October. “The improvement program to further increase the safety margin, which will increase reliability, durability and reduce maintenance requirements during commercial operation,” the company said in a press release.
Virgin Galactic planned to start an improvement program after the test flight, but, according to its statement, in the last test, it found a potential problem;
a possible decrease in the safety margin of some materials used to modify specific compounds” that require further physical inspection.
The company also stressed that the schedule revision is not related to the investigation of the circumstances of the last suborbital flight, which the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) conducted in September. The flight in question took place on July 11.
During the landing, the Unity ship deviated from the set course. As a result, the FAA has banned Virgin Galactic flights during inspections.
