Richard Branson Onboard. Virgin Galactic’s Shares Up By 28%

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Published: Jul 2, 2021, 13:31 UTC

Virgin Galactic’s stock price rallied by 28% at Friday’s pre-market trading session after the company announced that founder Richard Branson would be onboard its July 11 space flight.

Richard Branson Will Be Onboard the July 11 Space Flight

Space tourism firm Virgin Galactic announced yesterday that its founder Richard Branson would be on board its next test flight slated for July 11. The space flight is expected to come nine days before Jeff Bezos flies his space tourism rocket.

According to the company, Branson wasn’t expected to fly its VSS Unity spaceplane for another two tests. However, Virgin Galactic changed its decision and added Branson to the crew of four mission specialists and two pilots.

Richard Branson is excited about this latest development after announcing it via a tweet yesterday. The mission, called Unity 22, will be the company’s fourth crewed test flight of VSS Unity. The spaceplane launches from a carrier aircraft mid-air and goes up towards the edge of space, allowing the passengers on board to experience a few minutes of weightlessness.

The Unity spaceplane is designed to carry a maximum of six passengers and two pilots. It has been tested 22 times so far. Branson is expected to take three more trips with the spaceplane before the end of the year.

The news that Richard Branson will be onboard the latest Virgin Galactic spaceplane pushed the company’s stock price higher this morning. Virgin Galactic, trading on the New York Stock Exchange, was up by 28% at Friday’s pre-trading session.

SPCE stock chart. Source: FXEMPIRE

However, at the time of this report, the stock is trading at $43.19, up by 21% over the past 24 hours. The stock price rally could be due to Branson set to beat rival Jeff Bezos to space. Branson said he is looking forward to making more people astronauts, as he plans to make an announcement after the July 11 space flight. The announcement, if positive, could lead to a further rally for the Virgin Galactic stock price.