Jeri Clausing
Anyone who’s been following Virgin Galactic over the years knows that predictions about when it will launch space tourism are a bit like Groundhog Day. It seems like every year, it, we or somebody else says this will be the year the company starts its $250,000-per-person flights.
Now, nearly a decade after its first projected launch, the company is indeed entering the final stretch, meaning — dare we say it — that 2021 could be the magic year.
CEO Michael Colglazier told investors during the company’s third quarter earnings call that Virgin Galactic expects to run a suborbital test flight of the VSS Unity spaceship between Nov. 19 and 23. The flight will be the first powered test run since the company moved from the Mojave Desert to its permanent New Mexico home at Spaceport America.
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Two more powered flights, which will carry more than just the pilots and test dummies, are also planned for early next year, Colglazier said. The first will carry four Virgin Galactic employees in the passenger cabin. Founder Richard Branson plans to be on the second space flight, expected by the end of March, he said.
While Branson has for years offered overly optimistic projections about getting the space flights launched “this year” or “next year,” the company stopped talking publicly about schedules after the company’s SpaceShip Two broke apart on a test flight over the Mojave Desert in 2014, killing one of its two pilots.
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Colglazier’s comments, then, would seem to indicate the company is indeed in the final testing stages and quite confident about meeting its goals.
In a further sign of optimism, Colglazier said the company is also making great headway in expanding its space fleet, with construction of Virgin Galactic’s next two spaceships advancing. Additionally, he said, the company is preparing to ramp up plans to produce a full fleet of rockets and mother ships to further its long-term goal of operating from spaceports around the world, he said.