Virgin Galactic leases factory to build new space planes, up to 6 a year

Virgin Galactic, a suborbital space tourism service provider, announced on Friday that it will manufacture its next-generation Delta-class space plane at a newly leased facility in Mesa, a suburb of Phoenix, USA.

Virgin Galactic just announced another deal last week to build a new mothership for the Delta-class space plane. The company said the newly leased facility could produce up to six space planes a year.

Virgin Galactic said in a statement that the facility is under construction, adjacent to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, and should be ready for use in 2023. However, the statement did not disclose details such as lease terms, facility size, etc.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement: “Our spaceplane final assembly facility is key to accelerating production of the Delta-class spacecraft, which will allow us to rapidly increase our flight capabilities, thereby driving Our revenue grew.”

Virgin Galactic aims to eventually launch as many as 400 suborbital missions per year using two new motherships and its growing fleet of Delta-class space planes. The company has previously said that the new space plane is expected to enter service in 2025 for a “payload revenue flight” phase. The company also said the Delta-class space plane should be ready to begin shipping paying customers in 2026.

Friday’s announcement comes one year after Virgin Galactic achieved its first human spaceflight on July 11, 2021. The mission was accomplished with Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson aboard the VSS Unity space plane, which was launched aloft from the VMS Eve mothership, before firing its engines to the edge of space.

However, Virgin Galactic has not conducted manned flights since. The company is working on upgrades and maintenance of Unity and Eve, the only operational space planes and motherships, respectively, in Virgin Galactic’s current fleet.

Virgin Galactic’s current ticket price is $450,000, up from $250,000 before Branson’s flight. Virgin Galactic has briefly reopened ticket sales to customers twice since last July, and earlier this year the company said it had about 800 customers waiting to sell.

Instead of taking a rocket directly into space, Virgin Galactic customers need to launch from the air. The space plane is anchored under the mothership’s wings until it reaches an altitude of about 50,000 feet (about 15,000 meters). Then, the space plane free-falls, starts the rocket engine, and flies into suborbital space.

A Virgin Galactic spokesman said the company’s next suborbital spaceflight was scheduled for early 2023, after a three-month delay due to “supply chain and labor constraints.” So far, VSS Unity has made four test flights into suborbital space, but it has yet to begin full commercial service.

In early July, Virgin Galactic also announced a deal with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two new motherships, each capable of launching up to 200 times a year.

Virgin Galactic decided to outsource manufacturing because it could shorten mothership delivery times, minimize supply chain issues, and reduce costs.

Perhaps most importantly, the partnership will allow Virgin to tap into its existing high-skilled workforce. By relying on Aurora for manufacturing, Virgin has also freed up internal teams to focus on design, engineering and final assembly. The first mothership is scheduled to enter service in 2025.

Blue Origin, owned by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is Virgin Galactic’s biggest rival in suborbital space tourism and has flown passengers to the “final frontier” five times. The first was on July 20, 2021, and the passengers included Bezos, his brother and several others.