MW Virgin Galactic's stock is skyrocketing. This is why.

By James Rogers

Space-tourism company Virgin Galactic expects that private astronauts will pay more than $600,000 for a ticket on its new Delta class SpaceShips

Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. are up more than 13% in premarket trades, buoyed by the space-tourism company's better-than-expected first-quarter results and its increased expectations around spaceflight prices.

The company $(SPCE)$ said that the first flight of its new Delta class SpaceShip carrying research payloads is still on track for 2026 and that private-astronaut spaceflights are planned for fall 2026.

Speaking during a conference call to discuss the results, Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Michael Colglazier said that the company expects to open the first wave of spaceflight reservations in the first quarter of 2026. Specific pricing has not been set, according to Colglazier, although Virgin Galactic expects that this will increase relative to the company's last price of $600,000.

"We expect the majority of people who will join in this first wave will be new customers, including both scientists and private citizens," said Colglazier. "With that said, our experience flying SpaceShip Unity has us optimistic about repeat business coming from the approximately 675 customers already on our manifest."

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"As a case in point, all three of the private astronauts who flew on our last spaceflight, Galactic 07, have signed on to fly again once our new spaceships are in service," the CEO added.

The company completed Galactic 07, the final commercial flight of its Unity spacecraft, last year.

Speaking during the conference call, Virgin Galactic's chief financial officer, Doug Ahrens, said that approximately half of the company's spending in 2025 is expected to comprise one-time capital expenditures for tooling, manufacturing capacity, and production of the first two Delta Class SpaceShips.

Virgin Galactic also said that it is midway through a feasibility study to develop a second spaceport in Italy, in addition to its Spaceport America in New Mexico. The Italian government, Colglazier explained, has designated an air-force base in the Puglia region as a spaceport region.

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The company ended the first quarter with cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $567 million.

During the quarter, Virgin Galactic's revenue fell to $461,000 from $1.99 million in the prior year's comparable quarter, although this was driven by the company's pause in commercial spaceflights while it develops the Delta spacecraft. Analysts surveyed by FactSet were looking for revenue of around $300 million.

The company's loss also narrowed to $2.38 a share from $5.10 a share in the prior year's quarter, beating the FactSet consensus estimate of a $2.68 a share loss.

Virgin Galactic shares have fallen 43% in 2025, compared with the S&P 500 index's SPX gain of 0.6%. The Procure Space ETF UFO is up 5.4% in 2025.

-James Rogers

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May 16, 2025 09:14 ET (13:14 GMT)

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