Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) completed another test of its mothership ahead of its fourth-quarter earnings, which are likely to show continued losses as delayed preparations continue to begin commercial space tourism flights in the coming quarter.
Results are due to be reported after the New York stock market closes on Tuesday, with a conference call at 2pm Pacific time (5pm ET, 10pm GMT).
Overnight the company said the flight of its Eve mothership was another functional check flight following recent modifications and to move the aircraft back to Spaceport America in New Mexico.
This was the second test for Eve since the company was forced to delay its maiden commercial flights due to a "potential manufacturing defect" in a component almost a year and a half ago.
Eve is designed to carry Unity into the upper atmosphere before the rocket unclips and fires its own engines to take passengers to the edge of space for a princely sum of US$450,000 apiece.
After Virgin Galactic said last month that, after many delays in recent years, it is back "on track" to begin space tourism flights from the second quarter of 2023, the next operational stages will be to perform more check flights, ground testing with Unity 'mated' underneath Eve’s wing and the "the home stretch" of Eve flying with Unity attached, said astronaut and flight test engineer Colin Bennett in a Q&A on the company's website.
"They will fly to altitude and release Unity to perform a solo glide back to land at Spaceport. And finally, a fully-crewed rocket powered flight to space," Bennett said.
"These final validation flights run the vehicles through all final system and operational checks that provide us the data to finalize our models, which will clear the vehicles for commercial service."
Results on Tuesday follow earnings in November that showed an increased US$146mln net quarterly loss.
After tickets for its first public spaceflights went on sale in February last year, reservations were later paused once 800 had been received, with US$104.8mln held in deposits from 'future astronauts'.
Manufacturing defect
After a potential defective component was found in Unity in 2021, the company later confirmed that a laboratory-based test flagged a possible reduction in the strength margins of certain materials used to modify specific joints, which required further physical inspection.
The enhancement program since has been designed to improve vehicle performance and flight-rate capability for Eve and Unity.
Virgin performed routine lab tests and analyses to update its material properties database, to predict how materials are expected to perform under certain load and environmental conditions.
One of the laboratory-based tests flagged a possible reduction in the strength margins of certain materials used to modify specific joints, and this requires further physical inspection.
Its flights had been affected by technical issues, including the maiden flight for founder Sir Richard Branson being afflicted by some wobbly moments that were later investigated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).