Spaceport in New Mexico Virgin Galactic spacecraft outside the United States.
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglacier outlined his long-term goals for space tourism on Thursday, saying he sees the company generating $ 1 billion a year in revenue for space in the coming years.
“The first chapter of the Virgin Galactic is about doing incredibly hard work, creating a space travel system that can fly humans into space,” Colglacier said while discussing. Company third quarter results In a conference call. “The next chapter of the Virgin Galactics is to bring thousands and thousands of people into space and provide our mission to open up space for the betterment of the world. To achieve this goal we are embarking on a multi – year effort to fly planes once a month or even once a week – but fly 400 planes a year into space. Aims. “
The daily launch tempo for the Virgin Galactic Company is still many years away as the company works to complete the development of its Spaceship Two spacecraft. To date, the company has operated two spacecraft – one in December 2018 and the other in February 2019 – and Two more test flights are planned to fly into space in the coming months Before it flew the founder Richard Branson.
In addition, Colglacier noted that it would take several spacecraft operating in the Virgin Galactic Navy to reach 400 aircraft a year. The company currently has one of the test and spacecraft similarities, and expects to complete production of its second spacecraft in the first quarter of 2021. The collegiate Virgin Galactic claims that the spacecraft has been updated and has a “better turning time” between flights, with a more “modular” design to improve the efficiency of inspection and maintenance.
It is working on a third spacecraft, with Virgin Galactic filing an ordinance on Thursday, which estimates it will cost $ 35 million to $ 55 million to complete production on the second and third spacecraft.
Due to the Virgin Galactic launch site approach to space travel – which uses a jet-powered carrier to lift the spacecraft to an altitude of about 45,000 feet – the Colglacier company achieves a flight rate of 400 per year that would require “multiple mothers” in space. The company says it is “in the early planning stages of building and developing a second carrier aircraft”.
“We have to increase production in that case, to highlight now to meet the expected demand. But it’s a few mothers, many spacecraft and … a rocket motor for every plane we go on,” Colglacier said.
As each spacecraft can carry up to six passengers, UPS analyst Miles Walton wrote in a note to investors on Friday that the annual revenue and ticket price for 400 flights a year is about $ 400,000. The company has previously sold about 600 tickets, most of which are priced at 200 200,000 to 250 250,000. Virgin Galactic has not yet confirmed how many tickets will cost when the sale reopens, however The company leadership has pointed out that it expects more tickets than ever before Thanks for the remarkable need.
The Virgin Galactic spacecraft Unity 2020 is set to land in New Mexico on June 25 after an air test.
Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic operates to launch commercial service flights from Spaceport USA in New Mexico. But the leadership of the company Discussed with other countries about building more spacecraft around the world, Including Abu Dhabi, Italy, United Kingdom, Australia and Sweden.
“We hope to provide the transformation experience we want to provide and that we can command this kind of distribution-restricted product,” Colglacier said.
Subscribe to CNBC Pro For exclusive intelligence and analysis and live business day programming from around the world.
“Explorer. Devoted travel specialist. Web expert. Organizer. Social media geek. Coffee enthusiast. Extreme troublemaker. Food trailblazer. Total bacon buff.”