Virgin Galactic, the spaceflight company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, will be listed on the stock market before the year ends. The planned public listing is aimed at rocketing the firm's finances to take on other space companies such as Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin.
The highly lucrative space industry, estimated to be worth billions of dollars in the coming years, is slowly churning out startups from across the globe. Virgin Galactic is currently one of the forerunners of the industry, with goals of commercializing space and making space travel available to everyone.
According to reports citing sources close to the matter, Virgin Galactic plans to list its shares as part of a merged company with Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. The special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, will take a 49 percent stake in Virgin Galactic, estimated to be worth around $800 million.
Compared to a typical initial public offering (IPO), a SPAC deal will allow Virgin Galactic to become available to the public much sooner. The firm initially wanted to conduct an IPO, which was supposed to be launched after its first commercial flight. Reports revealed that the firm was actually working on the SPAC agreement for the last nine months.
Virgin Galactic, along with Virgin Orbit, was established by Branson under the Virgin Group, as a way of cashing in on the growing demand for space travel. The company aims to develop proprietary commercial spacecraft that would be used or suborbital spaceflight for the public. The company also aims to provide flights for enterprise and industrial use such as science missions and satellite launches.
Traditional space launch services have long been dominated by companies such as United Launch Alliance, which is a joint venture company between Lockheed Martin and Boeing. Unlike the United Launch Alliance, Virgin Galactic is aiming to develop technologies that would allow the public to afford to go to space.
Virgin Galactic launched a rocket plane in February, which carried its first human test passenger. Rivals such as SpaceX and Blue Origin have also announced plans to send their first passengers into space. SpaceX announced last year that its first passenger would be Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa.
The company's first space tourist will be sent on board a rocket, scheduled to be launched in 2023, in a voyage that will circle the moon. Meanwhile, Blue Origin has already begun testing its New Shepard rockets, but it has yet to send a human on board a trip.
Virgin Galactic has reportedly already pre-sold hundreds of tickets to its first commercial suborbital flights. Among the most famous people to have paid for the upcoming flights include actor Leonardo DiCaprio and singer Justin Bieber.
