Virgin Galactic’s future fleet of commercial spaceplanes will have a home base that will begin operating from next year.
Virgin Galactic’s new “Delta” class spaceplane is scheduled to fly after 2026. The final flight of the company’s previous spaceplane, VSS Unity, took place on June 8, when a Turkish astronaut and three space tourists reached suborbital space and experienced several minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic has already named an international group of crew members for one of its first Delta class flights, including former Virgin Galactic American private astronaut Kelly Gerardi, Canadian Shona Pandya and Irishwoman Nora Patten, who flew aboard Galactic 05 in November 2023, to head to space after 2026.
To help build a fleet of Delta-class aircraft, the aerospace company In a statement The company is completing construction on a new multi-purpose facility in Mesa, Arizona, which will serve as the primary manufacturing and assembly center for its next-generation Delta spacecraft.
Virgin Galactic plans to have the final production hardware installed by the end of the year, after which major subassemblies like the feathering system, fuselage and wings will arrive, and Virgin Galactic’s team plans to begin construction of the first two Delta ships in 2025.
Once manufacturing and ground testing are complete, the completed spacecraft will Spaceport America Flight testing will take place in New Mexico, with commercial operations expected to begin in 2026.
“The completion of our new manufacturing facility marks a significant milestone in the development of our next-generation spacecraft, which are key to our scale and profitability,” said Michael Colglaser. Virgin Galactic “Tooling required for final assembly of the spacecraft is expected to arrive within the next few months, with work to begin in the first quarter of 2025,” the CEO said in a statement.
The multi-purpose facility will have two multi-bay hangars, allowing maximum flexibility for building and testing spacecraft. Virgin Galactic is using digital twin technology, which will enable “seamless” connectivity with real-time collaboration between the facility’s workers and the company’s suppliers.
Each Delta spacecraft can accommodate up to six passengers and perform up to eight missions per month.
