Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft is preparing for flight.
Virgin Galactic
Shares of Virgin Galactic fell after the company on Friday delayed its next space flight test, which was scheduled for this weekend.
“We have been making progress in our pre-flight preparations and during this process we have decided to give more time for technical checks. We are working to identify the next flight opportunity,” the company said in a statement.
Shares of Virgin Galactic have risen more than 450% since the company went public in October 2019, with a market valuation now reaching $ 14 billion, despite a lack of significant revenue of the company to date and constant quarterly losses. Investor speculative trading to date depends on Virgin Galactic advancing in the realization of its development program and in the start of commercial flights, with updates and delays significantly affecting daily stock changes.
On Friday, shares fell as much as 11% in premarket trading since their previous close of $ 59.41.
Stocks had jumped 13% the day before, after an FAA warning indicated the space flight test was on its way to launch as early as Saturday. The company had confirmed on Thursday that it was “making good progress in our flight preparations,” but noted at the time that the flight attempt was still pending technical preparation.
A technical check can be for a wide variety of reasons, from hardware inspection to software verification, so the delay can range from days to weeks depending on the severity of the problem.
The next spaceflight test is 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.
Earlier this week, UBS lowered its stock rating to neutral, citing the stock jump to start the year. 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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