Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (NYSE:SPCE) shares are expected to float further away from recent all-time lows after it took another step towards starting commercial zero-gravity flights on the edge of space in the next two months.
The space tourism company said its Unity rocket carried out a nine-minute glide flight, after being carried to 47,000 ft by its Eve mothership.
It said this was "one of the final steps" in testing and it now needs to analyse the flight data to see if its vehicles can be cleared to begin spaceflights again, which it has pledged to do by the end of the second quarter.
Next, it plans a rocket-powered flight for Unity carrying two pilots and four "mission specialists" to further assess the in-flight cabin experience and ground training for future customers.
Virgin Galactic, which last month unveiled increased losses but said it had US$980mln of liquid assets at the end of December, has been carrying out numerous tests of its aircraft since being forced to delay its maiden commercial flights due to a "potential manufacturing defect" was identified in a component almost a year and a half ago.