Virgin Galactic Shares Rise On Rocket Update: What Investors Should Know

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic issued an update on its next flight window after returning home early on its last trip in December.

What Happened: Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc SPCE shared a company update on Twitter Thursday morning.
“We have completed the post-flight inspections and root cause analysis of what caused the onboard computer to halt ignition of the rocket motor. Corrective actions have been defined and work is already underway,” the company said.

The company cited an onboard computer losing connection and a triggered fail-safe scenario as the root cause in December.

Related Link: Why Virgin Galactic’s Stock Could Rocket Higher ON NASA Deal, Upcoming Flight Launch

Why It’s Important: On Dec. 12, Virgin Galactic attempted a test flight that was seen as a last step before taking passengers on space flights in 2021.

The new update offers a quick look at the timeline.

“Once this corrective work has been implemented and verified, we will confirm our pre-flight timeline for the next test flight and share expected dates for when the flight window will open,” the company said.

Virgin Galactic listed the completion of SpaceShipTwo Unity’s test flight program and welcoming a second spaceship to its fleet as upcoming events for 2021 in a Christmas Eve tweet. 

Benzinga’s Take: Shares of Virgin Galactic fell by a double-digit percentage after the December test flight returned home early.

Virgin Galactic has strong customer interest and is one of a few publicly traded space pure-play stocks.

The update from the company shows that there could be two upcoming catalysts in 2021, with the official announcement of the test flight and the actual test flight.

Shares of Virgin Galactic traded at $32.04 prior to the last test flight.

SPCE Price Action: Shares of Virgin Galactic were trading 3.14% higher at $24.93 at last check Thursday.

Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo Unity takes off for a test flight. Photo courtesy of Virgin Galactic.