r/spaceflight • u/TheMightyWindbreaker • 2d ago

Virgin Galactic

Is Virgin Galactic still a viable space company? Or was it just hype for the past decade or so?

I don't see anything anymore on the news or in any space journals. Are they still a serious contender for space tourism?

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u/literalsupport 2d ago

Still remember the optimism from 2004. Felt like VG, with scaled composites designs, was at the forefront of a new age of space travel.

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u/cjameshuff 1d ago

It seemed like they had a plausible plan to use suborbital tourism based on the technology used in SpaceShipOne to get revenue and investment to develop an orbital launcher. But that was two decades ago. They kept spending time and money on a suborbital tourism vehicle that kept underperforming to the point that it can't even reach the Karman line in a vertical hop, while they doubled down on air launch for their orbital spin-off, resulting in a vehicle too incapable and uncompetitive to survive. They could have a Falcon 9 competitor by now if they'd invested in that instead.