Update from Virgin Galactic: they still claim they plan to resume flights by year-end

It has been awhile since anything of importance happened with Virgin Galactic at Spaceport America. Back in August we discussed what we believe to be a deeply flawed economic “study” of the facility’s economic impact, but the company last launched on June 8, 2024 and we have been waiting for the company to resume its space tourism flights out of their taxpayer-funded New Mexico facility ever since.

Well, according to USA Today, the company is still planning to launch this year. (we have our doubts, but only time will tell). According to the article:

Virgin Galactic still expects to resume its space tourism operations by the end of 2026 as it looks to begin ground testing for its new spaceplane in April.

The commercial suborbital spaceflight company founded by billionaire Richard Branson hasn’t conducted a mission taking civilians to the edge of space in nearly two years. But in a recent earnings call, company leaders indicated that plans remain on track to resume those operations later this year now that its new suborbital spaceplane is in the final stages of assembly in Phoenix, Arizona.

Up next? testing from the ground before transitioning to the flight test phase in New Mexico.

Will the company really be able to go from ground testing to flight test and ultimately manned launches within the span of 8 months? They have certainly not hit ambitious targets like this one over the years. Time will tell, but this is one of MANY examples where New Mexico politicians have chased some BIG economic development dream by throwing tax dollars at it rather than making necessary reforms to make New Mexico a more attractive place to do business. The Spaceport and so many other big-spending policies/projects have either failed completely or had at best limited success.