On December 18, 2020, Virgin Galactic shares fell by 4% after shareholders offered 113 million of stock for sale.
About 105 million Virgin Galactic’s outstanding shares of common stock and up to 8 million of warrants shares were registered, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. There is no indication whether the sale has already begun.
On December 12, 2020, Virgin Galactic conducted a test flight of its VSS Unity spaceplane. The test did not go as planned and had to be aborted before reaching the space. It was set to be the first human-crewed spaceflight from the aerospace company’s base in New Mexico. After the unsuccessful test flight, the company’s shares sank by 17%.
Virgin Galactic aims to eventually transport passengers to space and it already has over 600 customers who have each paid $250,000 per ticket. Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson has said he would be among the first ones to fly.
Nevertheless, the competition of commercial space travel is heated. Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have surged as successful businesses and Virgin Galactic’s competitors.