https://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-to-merge-with-investment-company-go-public/
I follow the private space industry fairly closely since I think they have the potential to be some of the strongest growth industries in the near future. However, the news of Virgin Galactic trading publicly-ish does not have me the least bit excited.
You hardly ever hear mention of Virgin Galactic in the space community since there is little noteworthy to say about their designs or ambitions. I find it far more impressive how they've been able to avoid bankruptcy for so many years while accomplishing so little, yet they are frequently regarded as one of the "big three" by the media, alongside BlueOrigin and SpaceX.
Virgin Galactic boasts 600 reservations for 100km suborbital flights at $250k a seat, yet the 2014 crash and years of delays raises questions about safety. While BlueOrigin hasn't announced a solid ticket price for it's New Shepard vehicle, it's plausible that it would be able to substantially undercut this price, not to mention the vehicle is likely to be far more safe for the passengers. This is to say nothing of SpaceX, which is likely only a few years away from offering full orbital flights to private citizens, which are likely to be far more attractive to wealthy customers than 10 minute suborbital ones.
Virgin Galactic is also about to launch its first orbital vehicle before the end of the year, LauncherOne, yet with the bankruptcy of Northrop Grumman's Stratolaunch earlier this year, the business case for airborne disposable small sat launchers is dubious. VirginGalactic also has claimed to be interested in the burgeoning satellite internet market, yet LauncherOne is designed to deliver approximately 300kg to orbit at a cost of 10mil. By comparison, the SpaceX Falcon 9 can deliver 22,000kg for approximately 65mil, and was recently used to deliver 60 Starlink satellites in one launch (with two more planned before the end of the year).
And I could go on...
Tl;dr: I don't see a business case for Virgin Galactic and don't understand why they are receiving the amount of investment that they are.
Submitted October 27, 2019 at 08:03PM by YoYossarian https://ift.tt/31PZYi4
