Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company looking to ferry private astronauts beyond Earth's atmosphere, has confirmed that the assembly for its first Delta SpaceShip will begin this month at its newly established manufacturing facility in Mesa. According to ABC15, the plant was completed last summer and is now on track for initiating private astronaut flights by fall 2026.
"This first spaceflight will carry scientific research, and we expect to begin private astronaut spaceflights in the fall of 2026. We have made tremendous progress with the fabrication of tools and parts, and assembly of the first SpaceShip begins next month in Phoenix,” Michael Colglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, stated in a comment obtained by ABC15.
Further details provided by SpaceNews reveal that executives at Virgin Galactic anticipate a quick transition from assembly to flight test programs, given the Delta SpaceShip's design heritage from the retired VSS Unity. "Unity required moving in small incremental steps to build up the knowledge about the spaceship’s performance and limits," explained Mike Moses, Virgin Galactic’s spaceline president. "The test flights of Delta will be much more like regression testing, where we are incrementally expanding how Delta flies, but doing so by comparing it to how we know Unity flew."
With a focus on ramping up flight frequency to two per week post the initial private astronaut flights, the stage appears set for Virgin Galactic's ambitious stride towards financial viability, and profitability. As Virgin Galactic navigates the complex process of bringing Delta SpaceShips to life, they have not shied away from looking to future applications of their technology— with Colglazier suggesting the company's unique high-altitude "mothership" aircraft could serve as valuable assets for government and research customers for missions entailing extended durations and altitudes as high as 15,000 meters, as per SpaceNews. Nonetheless, he remained grounded in priorities, asserting, "First things first, we have to keep ourselves laser-focused on getting to the first of these two ships out and then the second one right behind it."
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