Virgin Galactic stock plummets after Jeff Bezos’ flight into space.
The richest man in the world on the ship of his company Blue Origin reached an altitude of almost 100 km. Shares of Virgin Galactic – a competitor – against this background fell markedly. Shares of the aerospace company Richard Branson Virgin Galactic fell 8.17%, to $ 29.75, after the opening of the leading trading session of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
The fall slowed to 6.91% ($ 30.16). Papers are getting cheaper on the background of the successful space flight of the founder of Amazon – Jeff Bezos. On the ship, the New Shepard of his company Blue Origin, the richest man in the world, ascended to an altitude of about 100 km, where the Karman line passes, which separates the Earth’s atmosphere from space. Along with Bezos, his brother Mark, the first female Federal Aviation Administration inspector Wally Frank, and 18-year-old Oliver Damen took part in the flight.
The teenager became the company’s first commercial client but did not disclose the amount he paid for the flight. At the same time, initially, the passenger seat, which Damen took, was purchased at an auction for $ 28 million by a buyer who wished to remain anonymous.
However, he refused to participate in the first flight due to a tight schedule and will fly into space with Blue Origin later. Finally, on July 11, Richard Branson passed into play on the VSS Unity spacecraft. The carrier aircraft VMS Eve delivered the ship to an altitude of over 12 km.
It launched its rocket engines and, accelerating to over 3600 km / h, reached a height of 86 km above the Earth. Virgin Galactic to begin operating commercial flights in 2022. And before that, the ship will have two more test flights. Virgin Galactic’s shares have plummeted nearly 40% since Branson’s flight.
Two factors caused the negative dynamics – profit-taking on investors and additional shares announced the next day after the launch. The company announced a different issue of 10.16 million securities worth $ 500 million – at $ 49.2 per share
