Virgin Galactic pushes commercial spaceflights to 2027 — again

Virgin Galactic has delayed the start of commercial flights of its new suborbital spaceplane to February 2027, pushing back the schedule by several months. The company disclosed the revised timeline during its second-quarter earnings call on August 12. In the previous earnings call in May, management had expected commercial flights to begin in the fourth quarter of this year.

Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said the delay was not caused by a single major issue but rather by a series of smaller problems that accumulated during assembly of the vehicle. He described "modest time-duration extensions across hundreds of relatively small but important installation tasks" involved in building the first Spaceship.

According to Colglazier, some components came together "a few thousandths of an inch taller or shorter" than expected, which triggered reviews to determine whether the mismatch fell within design tolerances or required adjustments. The number of such unexpected fit issues was higher than the company had budgeted for, and the trend accelerated toward the end of July.

"For a bit we thought we could manage that, but the team just needed more time to do it the correct way," Colglazier said. He added that the installation work is now wrapping up, and integrated ground tests of the vehicle are expected to begin later this month. The updated schedule assumes commercial flights will start in early 2027, marking another shift in a program that has already seen multiple delays as the company transitions from its earlier SpaceShipTwo design to the new Spaceship class.

The company did not announce any changes to its ticket pricing or the backlog of customers awaiting flights. Virgin Galactic has been working to resume revenue-generating suborbital missions after pausing operations to focus on developing the next-generation spacecraft, which is designed to carry passengers and research payloads on brief trips to the edge of space.