Virgin Galactic has said that it could sell up to $ 500m shares after the company recently completed a successful test space mission on Sunday with it’s Chief Richard Branson onboard.
In the official filing, Virgin Galactic informs the stakeholders that it is planning to use the proceeds of money raised to upgrade its space ship and infrastructure.
Visiting The Edge of Space
On Sunday, Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Galactic went to the edge of space on one of the planes his company had been developing for 17 years.
He called the trip a “lifetime experience” after returning to Earth more than an hour after leaving.
This historic space trip also made the businessman the first new pioneer in space travel to try out his shuttle, beating Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
Stock Reaction
Shares of Virgin Galactic rose about 8% before markets opened in the United States on Monday. But they had fallen by 17% by the end of the day, following the announcement of the sale of its share.
Sir Richard and his Virgin Group currently hold 24% stake in the company.
What Did Richard Branson Say?
Richard Branson, talking about the space ship he onboarded to go to the edge of space accompanied by two pilots 3 employees of company said that this project was a critical test of the space travel experience which is expected to start commercially for customers from next year.
“I was carrying my notebook and writing down 30 or 40 small items that would make the next person traveling with us in space much better,” he said.
“The only way sometimes you can find these little things is to get in a spaceship and go to space and experience it for yourself.”
The Space Flight
About 600 people have already paid estimated up to $ 250,000 in tickets for traveling to space- including Space X and Tesla’s Elon Musk, according to reports from premium business news portal Wall Street Journal.
Sir Richard first announced his intention to make a spacecraft in 2004, with expectations that he could materialize the project commercially by the year 2007.
Despite technical difficulties and fatal crashes in 2014, the company’s stock almost doubled this year as its commercial launch approached.
Ken Herbert, a Canaccord Genuity analyst, said the company could start tapping into wealthy customers in the near future.
