Virgin Galactic delays new spaceship's flights to 2027

Virgin Galactic already sold out its first batch of tickets on the new spaceship. That ship, called Delta, was supposed to be the company's comeback after grounding its whole fleet in 2024. Now the wait gets longer. The company blames the holdup on assembling the avionics, the electronics that fly the ship. That took longer than engineers expected.

This is the second time Virgin Galactic has pushed back Delta's debut this year. Money is part of the pressure. The company's cash could shrink to as little as $65 million by year's end. That's low enough to trigger a formal 'going concern' warning in its own filings. That warning is standard language. It tells investors the company might not survive without raising more cash. Virgin Galactic raised $134 million in a stock sale this quarter to help close the gap.

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Will Virgin Galactic actually fly paying passengers by February? The company has missed its own timelines before — Delta was originally supposed to fly in 2025. Space tourism only works if flights happen on a predictable schedule, the same way an airline does. Every slip erodes that promise a little more. Competitors like Blue Origin are already flying tourists regularly. Virgin Galactic needs Delta in the air, reliably, before it runs out of both cash and customer patience.