Virgin Galactic is deep into improvement of its new Delta Class suborbital area planes, with each analysis and personal astronaut flights anticipated to start within the fall of 2026.
Virgin Galactic can also be collaborating on a feasibility examine with Lawrence Livermore Nationwide Laboratory to take a look at utilizing its mothership plane to launch different spacecraft at excessive altitude as a provider platform.
“Progress on our SpaceShips continues throughout all methods and buildings,” stories Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic. He underscores a powerful monetary stability sheet, “to execute our enterprise mannequin as we carry our SpaceShips into business service.” Colglazier says business service stays deliberate for 2026, with each analysis and personal astronaut flights anticipated within the fall subsequent yr.
Conference call
The construction of Virgin Galactic’s new Delta Class space plane was reviewed during the company’s second quarter 2025 business conference call on Aug. 6.
The company highlighted ongoing work on Delta Class systems and structures, such as wing assembly to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year, as well as the craft’s novel “feather” assembly. The feathering system is utilized when the suborbital vehicle heads back to Earth, making it more stable during the reentry process. Construction of the Delta Class SpaceShip fuselage is expected to be completed late this year or early 2026.
Also noted in the business update was progress in a feasibility study to potentially develop a second spaceport in Italy.
Flight frequency
Final assembly of the vehicles will take place at Virgin Galactic’s Delta facility near Phoenix, Arizona. The Delta Class spaceships are being built to be capable of flying eight space missions per month, with twelve times the monthly payload or customer capacity of their original spaceship, VSS Unity.
The firm explains that their next-generation vehicles will bring humans to space at an unprecedented frequency with an industry-leading cost structure.
Virgin Galactic’s Mike Moses, president of Spaceline, oversees the commercial spaceflight program. A newly issued “Galactic 10” video spotlighted development milestones in moving the Delta Class SpaceShip program forward.
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