Virgin Galactic unveils new 'Imagine' ship for space tourism

ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO (BLOOMBERG) - Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc has unveiled its newest spacecraft, the VSS Imagine, the first vehicle produced under a new assembly system that's critical to the company's goal of offering daily tourism flights to space.

The Imagine "demonstrates progress toward efficient design and production", the company said in a statement on Tuesday (March 30).

The new manufacturing process will reduce maintenance and enable a quicker flight tempo as the company seeks to "scale the business for the long-term".

The spacecraft will soon begin ground testing, with glide tests planned this summer at Virgin Galactic's Spaceport America facility in New Mexico.

Work on a third vehicle, the VSS Inspire, was slowed by the pandemic, but will be finished next year, when it will begin flight tests, Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said in an interview.

The shiny Imagine features a "mirror-like" exterior coating for thermal protection, Virgin Galactic said.

The company, founded by billionaire Richard Branson, wants to make commercial space travel commonplace, with a target of reaching 400 flights annually from New Mexico and expanding globally.

Virgin Galactic's shares had risen 23 per cent this year through Monday, more than twice the gain of a Standard & Poor's index of US aerospace and defence companies.

The stock fell 1.4 per cent to US$28.81 before the start of regular trading on Tuesday in New York.

Virgin Galactic was hit by delays in its path toward customer flights by pandemic-related setbacks and electrical problems on its current spacecraft, VSS Unity.

That vessel's next test flight will be in May, following a failure to launch in December that revealed the issue and led to a revamp of some systems on the vehicle.

The glitches also derailed a test flight planned last month.

"We are still planning and feel great about May as the next test flight," Mr Colglazier said.

The company hasn't detected any other issues after a thorough review of all of Unity's systems, he said.

Engineers traced the problems to electromagnetic interference and expected to complete rework in about nine weeks, the company said on Feb 25.

The vehicle's rocket failed to ignite during a Dec 12 test flight, triggering an investigation of the VSS Unity's systems.

After building the initial three craft, Virgin Galactic will switch to a slightly different spacecraft design, called a Delta class vehicle, that will lead to faster assembly times and less maintenance.

The company is also exploring whether to contract parts of the assembly work for its carrier "motherships", which drop the spacecraft from high altitudes, Mr Colglazier said.

Virgin Galactic plans to resume ticket sales after it flies Mr Branson to space this summer and to begin tackling its customer backlog of about 600 people in 2022.

The first formal "revenue flight" will be for the Italian Air Force in late summer or early fall, following Mr Branson's excursion.

All the flights will be from Spaceport America, although the company - based in Las Cruces, New Mexico - has said it plans to operate from additional spaceports in the future.