Virgin Galactic ‘could launch space flights from UK’
Virgin Galactic could launch commercial space flights from the UK after securing a £1 billion deal to take the company public.
Sir Richard Branson said his space venture has ‘strong interest’ from UK authorities to build a spaceport here as it intends to expand beyond its current US facility
He was speaking to The Telegraph as Virgin Galactic announced that it would become the first space tourism company to go public as part of a deal with Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH), a US investment firm run by former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya.
SCH will take a 49% stake worth £1 billion in Virgin Galactic and Palihapitiya, who has pledged to invest a further $100 million in the company, will become chairman of the board.
Virgin Galactic will list on the New York Stock Exchange as part of the deal, but it won’t make an initial public offering.
Branson said Virgin Galactic has made ‘great progress’ in test flights and is confident in its safety and commercial success of the business.
It already has about 700 customers who have paid a deposit to take flights into orbit at a cost of $250,000 each.
Branson expects to be on first flight before the end of 2019, and he expects commercial flights to follow in 2020.
Virgin’s VSS Unity carrier aircraft will move to the upgraded Spaceport America base in New Mexico for final test flights before officially launching commercial services.
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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