Virgin Galactic's stock price surged by more than 30% after it announced the reopening of ticket sales for its space flights Tuesday. The company said it will now be open to receive reservations for its air-launched rocket, which will cost $450,000 for the 90-minute flight into the edge of space.
Richard Branson's company currently has around 600 confirmed reservations, which were booked during its first round of ticket sales. Those tickets were sold for around $200,000 to $250,000 per seat depending on the package customers had availed.
On Tuesday, the company said it will be reopening ticket sales for its suborbital space flight starting today, Feb. 16. A deposit of $150,000 will be required, with the remaining balance to be paid in full before the actual flight.
The news sent Virgin Galactic's stock, which has been taking a beating over the past few months, skyrocketing. The stock surged by more than 30% during trading on Tuesday. In January, the company's shares took a nosedive after it was revealed that it was raising up to half a billion dollars in debt. Since then, the stock has been trading at or below $10 per share, a far cry from its all-time high of $62.80 per share in early 2021.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said during the company's most recent earnings conference in November that the company had been testing its sales process for the past several months and had sold around 100 tickets at its original $450,000 per-seat pricing point. He added that the company plans to begin full commercial operations once they have sold at least 1,000 seats.
After sending Branson to the edge of space during its maiden flight in July, the company had looked to be on the verge of launching commercial operations. However, some issues during the flight were detected, including the caution lights in the cockpit malfunctioning and the space plane drifting outside its allocated zone for 41 seconds. The FAA halted all flights pending an investigation, which was completed in September.
The company then announced that the commencement of commercial services would be delayed due to necessary technical changes. It isn't anticipated to start flying paying passengers until October.
When Virgin Galactic went public in 2019, it touted its plans to establish a commercial service in 2020. However, the start of commercial operations has been a changing target for Virgin Galactic due to significant delays and setbacks in its development and testing process.
