Virgin Galactic: Always on Track, Never on Time
Company says commercial flights are set for next year, but can it actually achieve it?
No doubt much to the company’s relief, it’s been a while since we’ve paid much attention to Virgin Galactic. That ends today.
Company officials made the following projections during the company’s third quarter earnings call last week:
flight test program for new Delta-class SpaceShipTwo vehicles are on track to commence in Q3 2026
first commercial suborbital flight on track for Q4 2026, with private customer launches following six to eight weeks later
the company will ramp up to 125 space flights per year once the first two new ships are flying
most of the approximately 800 ticket holders will fly within the first year of commercial operations
Delta-class suborbital vehicles are designed for 500 flights each.
An additional pair of suborbital vehicles and two new WhiteKnightTwo mother ships will follow.
The current schedule represents a slip of one quarter from the one Virgin Galactic announced earlier this year. The company revealed the slip during its second quarter earnings call in August.
The first commercial spaceflight likely means a load of microgravity experiments in the cabin instead of paying customers. The upgraded Delta-class ships will carry six people, an increase of two over the four customers that VSS Unity carried prior to its retirement in 2024. Company officials said the new vehicles will also be able to fly multiple times per week compared with once per month by VSS Unity.
That all sound good, right? Right?
Maybe not. Virgin Galactic has been on track to achieve one goal after another since Richard Branson announced plans to fly tourists to space in September 2004. In 21 years the company has seldom met its schedule.
Delays are quite common in big space projects. The problem is Virgin Galactic’s delays have been epic in scale. The company has exhibited a unique brand of excessive optimism coupled with a chronic inability to deliver. The only ongoing project that’s been comparatively similar regarding schedule slips and cost overruns is NASA’s effort to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
Much of that excessive optimism came from Virgin Galactic Founder Richard Branson, whose predictions had little to do with anything actually happening on the shop floor. He has been much quieter since he finally flew suborbital in July 2021 on a flight test and sold the majority of his shares in the company. The question is whether current management is any more realistic on schedule. There is some evidence that they are not.
On Nov. 9, a Glassdoor user who identified himself as an engineer working at the spacecraft manufacturing facility in Mesa posted a review titled, “Pathetic Management. Nobody knows what they’re doing. Everything rushed.” [Emphasis mine]
Engineer
Current employee, more than 1 year
Mesa, AZX Recommend X CEO approval X Business outlook
Pros
Its a job (for now)
Cons
Average pay.
Low morale at all levels.
So far behind it’s laughable, so any little thing that shows up is rushed, management is desperate.
2 scrappy options for insurance.
Yearly raises hover around 1.5-2%. Yearly bonus is pitiful. Everything is run by California or New Mexico operations. Everybody is involved in everything!!!! Literally nothing is simple. Taking this job was a huge mistake on my part.Advice to Management
Stop rushing!!! Admit failure, slow the pace. Quit being cheap.
An engineer working in Tustin, Calif. posted a review on July 20 titled, “Safety is 2nd to schedule.” The employee expressed concerns about an optimistic schedule, safety practices, and a layoff that had just occurred. [Emphasis mine]
Engineer
Current employee, more than 5 years
Tustin, CAX Recommend X CEO approval X Business outlook
Pros
History of cool space flights with the older vehicles designed by Scaled Composites.
Cons
Recent layoffs in July 2025 laid off experienced engineers who had worked at the company for years in favor of keeping less experienced, lower paid engineers who are less likely to speak out against safety violations when the company orders the safety workflow/ processes to be bypassed in order to rush a product to be ready sooner. This company is misleading the public about how far along it is on its programs. The company leadership is out of touch with the reality of the programs they have dictated. Virgin Galactic is dishonest.
Advice to Management
Dust off your resume and start looking for other jobs. The collapse of Virgin Galactic is eminent. You may have a hard time proving you are honest and trustworthy to future employers.
The assembling and testing of a new suborbital passenger vehicle is rocket science. These are complex tasks that will take a considerable amount of time. Virgin Galactic cannot rush these processes if it wants to fly safely and avoid further catastrophic failures. Four people have already died in two fatal accidents.
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said the company will have 90 percent of the structure parts at its Mesa facility by the end of this year. All the components need to be assembled and the vehicle powered on. Taxi tests on the runway and then captive carry flights attached to the WhiteKnightTwo carrier aircraft will follow. Unpowered glide flights and powered tests must be conducted before the first vehicle can carry passengers. At each testing stage, engineers will need to carefully evaluate data and address any anomalies that occur.
That’s a lot of work to do between now and the planned start of commercial operations next year. Additional delays are likely. Let’s take a look at the company’s financial condition to see how well it can absorb further slips.
Virgin Galactic Q3 Results
Revenue: $365,000 vs. $402,000 YoY
Revenue generated by stock sales: $23M
Cash, cash equivalents & marketable securities: $424M vs. $595.5M YoY
Net loss: $(64.4)M vs. $(74.5)M YoY
Net loss Q1-Q3: $(216.1)M vs. $(270.3)M YoY
Adjusted EBITDA: $(52.8 )M vs. (59.3)M YoY
Free cash flow: $(107.7)M vs. ($117.9)M YoY
Virgin Galactic had a net loss of $64.4 million in the third quarter, which put it on track to lose about $280 million at that burn rate. The $424 million in cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities would last 6.6 quarters if spending continued at that level. That would take the company into spring 2027.
But that’s not the full story. Virgin Galactic continues to raise money through stock sales. The company grossed $23 million in the third quarter.
Virgin Galactic officials said they plan to resume ticket sales in the first quarter of 2026. The company has been selling tickets at $600,000 for space tourists and $900,000 for researchers who want to accompany their experiments on flights.
Virgin Galactic also expects to begin collecting the balance due from current ticket holders as the dates for their flights approach. The company has spaceflight participants who have purchased tickets at prices ranging from $200,000 to $600,000. Some customers have been waiting to fly since 2004.
Time will tell whether Virgin Galactic can begin commercial suborbital flights next year. The company’s record suggests that further delays are likely.
I agree that delays are quite common in big space projects. It’s not only Virgin Galactic’s delays that have been epic in scale.
I agree that NASA’s history of schedule slips and cost overruns to return astronauts to the surface of the Moon is the outcome none of us like.
But let’s be clear that VG’s delays don’t impact the United States.
SpaceX’s delays on its HLS contract will cost the US and its Artemis Accord partners valuable resources such as landing sites on the lunar south pole, which the Chinese will declare as their own upon landing on them before we do.
But let’s also give credit where credit is due. In just a few months, NASA is to do what so many private space advocates have since 2010 said it would never be able to do with SLS and Orion. NASA, with its SLS and its Orion, is sending astronauts back to the moon.