Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. is a spaceflight company founded in 2004 by Sir Richard Branson. The company is a part of the Virgin Group and is focused on making space travel accessible to private individuals. Virgin Galactic aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to paying customers, allowing them to experience weightlessness and see Earth from the edge of space. Virgin Galactic is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol "SPCE." The company went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) in October 2019, making it one of the first publicly traded space tourism companies.
The company's initial concept was to develop a space tourism vehicle called SpaceShipOne, which was designed by aerospace engineer Burt Rutan and his company Scaled Composites. In 2004, SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spacecraft to reach the edge of space and return safely to Earth. The success of SpaceShipOne laid the foundation for the creation of Virgin Galactic as a commercial space tourism company.
Virgin Galactic's spacecraft, VSS Unity, is a rocket-powered spaceplane that is carried into the air by a mothership called VMS Eve. Once at a high altitude, VSS Unity is released from the mothership and its rocket engines ignite, propelling the spacecraft into suborbital space. Passengers on board experience a few minutes of weightlessness and get a unique view of the curvature of the Earth before gliding back to land.
The company has faced some setbacks and delays in its development and commercial operations, but it continues to work towards its goal of expanding access to space for private individuals. As technology and space travel capabilities advance, Virgin Galactic hopes to make space tourism a reality for more people around the world.