What is Virgin Galactic?
Until recently, space travel and tourism were ostensibly only plausible in books, TV and film. However, Virgin Galactic, a Virgin Group spaceflight company, is the first commercial spaceline company working to develop and operate space vehicles that will open space and space exploration to everyone. Richard Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004, stating with confidence that the company was “in the best position in the world” to provide rocket-powered, point-to-point 3,000 mph (4,800 km/h) air travel.
The initial plan is to take high-net-worth individuals on luxury adventures but as the venture evolves, Virgin Galactic plans on increasing spacecraft and flight capacity and quantity, making travel between cities faster and cheaper. They aim to meet a projected revenue of $590 million by 2023. The company is on the path to being the tourism leader in the ever-expanding space travel industry.
Virgin Galactic in 2021
The company hoped to have started commercial service in 2020, however, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, they experienced delays followed by a December 2020 test flight that did not meet expectations. The retest was anticipated to take part last weekend, however, it was announced last Friday via the Virgin Galactic Twitter account that technical checks were still underway. Virgin Galactic investors can keep hopes up that the retest will be conducted within the next few weeks. Assuming this to be true, the company will remain on track to begin commercial service on their spacecraft, SpaceShipTwo, this year.
Stocks and Shares
With news of the retest at the beginning of this year, Virgin Galactic’s shares were up more than 120%. However, the announcement of delay has come to prove that this is a volatile stock as the stock dropped more than 10% in pre-market trading. Virgin Galatic shares are priced to perfection as the company is set at a market value of $14 billion while having not made any revenue thus far. The value placed on the firm is based on the hope that everything goes right, therefore any setbacks, including delays, will likely be confronted by an inflated reaction on the Stock Market.
As per recent reports, on 10 February 2021 stock was falling due to a Wall Street analysis of the share, on 11 February stocks rose in anticipation of the scheduled weekend retest, from 12-16 February stocks once again fell following the announcement of the delay. This is an unpredictable stock to buy into. For those planning on investing it is advised that Virgin Galactic be a small part of an otherwise varied portfolio. When working with space, things are unpredictable and unlikely to always as per plan. As has been repeatedly proven, SpaceShipTwo is functional, however as a project like this will inevitably put people’s lives at risk, Virgin Galactic must be sure everything is perfect. Consequently, delays and backtracking are unavoidable and will affect the company stocks.
Enter contender SpaceX
Elon Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 to revolutionise space technology. The company now aims to begin commercial travel to Earth and Lunar orbit. With funding from entrepreneur Jared Isaacman, SpaceX has announced it aims to make a multi-day trip into Earth’s orbit that is open to civilians by late-2021.
Virgin Galactic or SpaceX?
Ultimately, with the introduction of a new contender in the space tourism, anyone interested in the industry will compare the two. However following analysis, the two companies are dissimilar and Virgin Galactic need not worry about facing competition as both companies have distinctly different plans, both in terms of business and technology models, for space travel.
1. SpaceX
SpaceX plans on using their rockets for their tourism trips, circling above Earth’s surface a few times before landing. These rockets both take off and land vertically in the traditional sense and are designed to make journeys to Mars in line with Musk’s vision.
2. Virgin Galactic
In contrast, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo takes off and land horizontally imitating a jet or aeroplane. SpaceShipTwo is made upon a carrier aircraft and a spacecraft. The carrier aircraft takes the spacecraft to 45,000 feet and releases it into orbit. The Virgin Galactic vision differs from SpaceX as, in the long run, the spacecraft is to be used for rapid point-to-point travel, so rather than for tourism, Virgin Galactic will be more efficient in supporting commercial business.
Virgin Galactic will continue to focus on increasing productivity. As SpaceX continues to focus solely on space tourism, Virgin Galactic will likely do better in the business world.
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