ORANGE COUNTY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) (“Virgin Galactic” or the “Company”) today announced the completion of its new manufacturing facility in Phoenix, Arizona, where final assembly of its next-generation Delta spaceships is scheduled to take place starting in Q1 2025.
An initial team of Virgin Galactic technical operations and manufacturing personnel has begun preparing the facility to receive and install tooling, expected to arrive in Q4 2024. The facility will then begin to receive major subassemblies, including the wing, the fuselage, and the feathering system next year, as the team scales to build the first two ships of the Delta fleet. Once ground testing in Phoenix is complete, Virgin Galactic’s mothership will ferry completed spaceships to Spaceport America, New Mexico for flight test ahead of commercial operations, which are expected to begin in 2026.
The multiuse facility includes two hangars equipped with multiple bays, designed for maximum flexibility in building and testing space vehicles. Work at the facility will be supported by the Company’s digital twin technology, which enables seamless integration between Virgin Galactic and suppliers through real-time collaboration, promoting strong governance and increased efficiency and reliability.
“The completion of our new manufacturing facility is an important milestone in the development of our fleet of next-generation spaceships, the key to our scale and profitability,” said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier. “Tooling will begin arriving in a matter of months to support spaceship final assembly, which we expect to commence in Q1 2025.”
In May 2024, Virgin Galactic opened a ground testing facility in Southern California for Delta subsystems, including avionics, feather actuation, pneumatics, and hydraulics, using an Iron Bird test rig.
Virgin Galactic’s Delta spaceships will seat up to six private passengers, and each is expected to be capable of flying up to eight missions per month, dramatically increasing access to space.
About Virgin Galactic
Virgin Galactic is an aerospace and space travel company, pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers with its advanced air and space vehicles. Scale and profitability are driven by next generation vehicles capable of bringing humans to space at an unprecedented frequency with an industry-leading cost structure. You can find more information at https://www.virgingalactic.com/.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We intend such forward-looking statements to be covered by the safe harbor provisions for forward-looking statements contained in Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”) and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”). All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical fact, including, without limitation, statements regarding the development of our Delta Class spaceships and proposed timeline for testing and commercial service using such spaceships, the timing of the delivery of parts and assembly of the Delta Class spaceships, the scaling of our team to develop the Delta Class spaceships, the use of digital twin technology to enable integration between us and suppliers and the estimated number of monthly flights of the Delta Class spaceships are forward-looking statements. The words “believe,” “may,” “will,” “estimate,” “potential,” “continue,” “anticipate,” “intend,” “expect,” “strategy,” “future,” “could,” “would,” “project,” “plan,” “target,” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements, though not all forward-looking statements use these words or expressions. These statements are neither promises nor guarantees, but involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other important factors that may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, any delay in future commercial flights of our spaceflight fleet, our ability to successfully develop and test our Delta fleet and the time and costs associated with doing so, the safety of our spaceflight systems, our expected capital requirements and the availability of additional financing, and the other, risks and uncertainties included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2023, as such factors may be updated from time to time in our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”), accessible on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov and the Investor Relations section of our website at www.virgingalactic.com, which could cause our actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements made in this press release. Any such forward-looking statements represent management’s estimates as of the date of this press release. While we may elect to update such forward-looking statements at some point in the future, we disclaim any obligation to do so, even if subsequent events cause our views to change.