Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) shares are trading higher. The company on Wednesday announced the completion of its new spaceship manufacturing facility in Arizona.

What Happened: Virgin Galactic said it completed its new Arizona facility and plans to perform final assembly of its next-generation Delta spaceships starting in the first quarter of 2025.

Virgin Galactic noted that a technical operations and manufacturing personnel team has begun preparing the facility for tooling that is expected to be delivered in the fourth quarter of this year. The facility will then begin to receive major subassemblies next year.

“The completion of our new manufacturing facility is an important milestone in the development of our fleet of next-generation spaceships, the key to our scale and profitability,” said Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic. “Tooling will begin arriving in a matter of months to support spaceship final assembly, which we expect to commence in Q1 2025.”

Virgin Galactic’s Delta spaceships will seat up to six passengers and be capable of flying up to eight missions per month, dramatically increasing access to space. Once ground testing is complete, Virgin Galactic’s mothership will ferry completed spaceships to Spaceport America for flight testing ahead of commercial operations, which the company expects will begin in 2026.

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How To Buy SPCE Stock

Besides going to a brokerage platform to purchase a share – or fractional share – of stock, you can also gain access to shares either by buying an exchange traded fund (ETF) that holds the stock itself, or by allocating yourself to a strategy in your 401(k) that would seek to acquire shares in a mutual fund or other instrument.

For example, in Virgin Galactic's case, it is in the Industrials sector. An ETF will likely hold shares in many liquid and large companies that help track that sector, allowing an investor to gain exposure to the trends within that segment.

SPCE Price Action: Virgin Galactic shares were up 1.42% at $7.14 at the time of publication, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: courtesy of Virgin Galactic.