(Bloomberg) — Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. (SPCE) shares jumped after it resumed sales of its commercial space flights on a limited basis, signaling the Richard Branson-founded company is moving toward restarting tourism operations after a two-year hiatus.
The California-based company said it released a number of tickets for spaceflight expeditions, each priced at $750,000, or about $100,000 higher than it previously charged.
Virgin Galactic stock rose as much as 20% in Tuesday trading in New York. The stock is down about 30% for the year through Monday’s close, as the space tourism industry faces limited demand and technology hurdles. Virgin Galactic paused ticket sales while it works to debut its upgraded Delta spaceplane.
After Blue Origin LLC announced in January that it suspended flights of its New Shepard rocket, Virgin Galactic was left as the only major company focused on short trips to space for sightseeing.
Virgin Galactic’s announcement on ticket sales came as it reported fourth quarter financial results for 2025 on Monday that fell short of analysts’ expectations. Revenue was about $312,000 for the fourth quarter, below the $360,000 expected on average by analysts polled by Bloomberg.
The company said it lost 98 cents per share in the quarter, more than the 82-cent loss Wall Street forecast.
Virgin Galactic also stated that it expects its second SpaceShip to enter service between late in the fourth quarter of this year or early in 2027, when the company plans to ramp up spaceflights.
It had cash and cash equivalents of $144.7 million, it said, down 19% from the year ago period. Virgin Galactic also expects to burn around $90 million for the first quarter of 2026.
—With assistance from Sana Pashankar.
(Updates with shares trading in third paragraph.)
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