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Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. announced on Thursday that its test flights for its rocket-powered space program have been delayed by two months to address technical issues, further delaying the promise of commercial flights.
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The space tourism company, founded by Richard Branson, told investors in a merit call that its second and third test flights will be postponed until at least May after the company addresses the technical issues arising from the December 12 flight. , approach effectively.
| Ticker | Safety | Last | Alter | Alter% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SPCE | VIRGIN GALACTIC HOLDINGS INC. | 37.23 | -5.01 | -11.86% |
The last attempt in December was cut short when computer problems prevented the spacecraft’s rocket from firing properly. Instead of soaring into space, the ship and its two pilots were forced to land immediately by gliding back to the runway at the desert outpost in southern New Mexico.
The company said Thursday it is confident the problem “is likely caused by electromagnetic interference or EMI.”
Virgin will postpone its launch in February “to further mitigate it” ahead of future flights, Mike Moses, Virgin Galatic president of space missions and safety, told investors.
Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2), the world’s first commercial spaceflight, lands at Moojave Airport after successfully completing its third supersonic rocket flight. (Photo by Al Seib / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
“Our safety culture is based on the principle that everyone in the business has the ability to pay attention to an issue,” Moses said. “And this is exactly the right approach if you’re dealing with human spaceflight.”
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Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said that once the issue is addressed, Virgin Galactic intends to “return to the sequence of the test flight program we previously communicated.”
Colglazier estimates that the problem will last about eight weeks to nine weeks, “indicating that our next test flight will be in May.”
“When we see something that is not quite right, we tackle it hard and fix it and then we move forward. And that’s what we do,” he said.
Virgin Galactic has reached space twice before – the first from California in December 2018. In June, Virgin Galactic marked its second successful glider flight over Spaceport America.
The company has announced another fixed date for its first commercial flight.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.