Virgin Galactic pilots walk to the company’s SpaceShipTwo Unity spacecraft, connected to the aircraft carrier Eve.
Virgin Galactic
Shares of Virgin Galactic rose according to a warning from the Federal Aviation Administration indicating that the company’s next space flight test is on its way to launch as early as Saturday.
An FAA notice issued Thursday said airspace around the Virgin Galactic base of operations at Spaceport America in New Mexico would be restricted to space operations from Saturday at 9 a.m. ET until Sunday at 6 pm (ET).
A Virgin Galactic spokesman confirmed to CNBC that the company “is making good progress in our flight preparations,” noting that the flight attempt is pending weather and technical readiness.
Shares of Virgin Galactic were up 9% at trading since its previous close of $ 52.39 per share.
The space flight test will be a remake of the December attempt the company aborted in the middle of the launch. Virgin Galactic spent two months analyzing the cause of the abortion and conducting ground tests, with the test flight set up to check “the repair work has been completed.”
Although there will only be two pilots on board, the flight is expected to be the first of three in a series, as the company seeks to complete the development of its spacecraft system.
Virgin Galactic will aim at each of the original objectives of the December flight attempt, “including the evaluation of elements of the customer’s cabin, the test of the ability of live transmission from the spacecraft to the ground and the assessment of horizontal stabilizers and updated flight controls during the flight phase boost, ”the company said.
After the flight test, Virgin Galactic said it would “complete a thorough review of data” to “report the next steps of the test flight program.”
Shares have doubled since early 2021, an action that earlier this week caused UBS to downgrade its share rating to neutral. UBS said in a note to customers that “we take into account the assessment that seems complete,” although upcoming test flights create an attractive “catalyst chain.”
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