Virgin Galactic Delta Spacecraft’s First Flight Planned for 2026

Virgin Galactic’s newest spacecraft is one step closer to the cosmos.

The space company, founded by Richard Branson back in 2004, plans to have its revamped Delta spacecraft undergo its first flight in the summer of 2026, Bloomberg reported. At that time, the takeoff would be the first suborbital trip in nearly two years for the company, which last headed toward the stars in June 2024.

Virgin Galactic plans to start assembling its first Delta spacecraft, made for civilian space travel, in March. The upgraded spacecraft, crafted to have a faster turnaround between trips, will be able to hold up to six passengers, which is two more than on previous iterations of the aircraft. The first missions will only include research cargo, the publication reported.

As for when private passengers can hop onboard, those flights are set to begin in the fall of 2026. And you’ll have to cough up a pretty penny to join any of Delta’s journeys: Ticket prices are estimated to sit at a cool $600,000. The space company currently has a waiting list of about 700 ticket holders, but it says Delta will eliminate the backlog in about a year.

Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial space flight in June 2023. The VSS Unity took off in New Mexico and landed about 90 minutes later with four passengers on board. The space company has since completed 12 successful flights to space. Since the summer flight in 2024, Virgin Galactic has paused any space travel to work on the Delta, according to Bloomberg. An earnings report from the brand said it earned $430,000 in revenue during Q4 of last year, slightly below the $460,000 analysts predicted.

Branson, of course, is one of just a few billionaires in the space tourism race. Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin completed its latest New Shepard rocket launch just this week, part of the brand’s quest to bring civilians to space. And with its Polaris Dawn mission, Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully executed the world’s first civilian spacewalk. We’ll see who ups the ante next.