Billionaire Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic announced yesterday that it's pushing back the start of its commercial space flights until the fourth quarter of 2022 and that it won't be conducting other test flights this year.
The private space exploration company said on Thursday, "commercial service is now expected to commence in Q4 2022." Its stock market shares dropped 13 percent in after-hours trading, Reuters reported.
Branson and five other Virgin Galactic employees successfully reached the edge of space aboard the Unity 22 during a successful test flight on July 11-its fourth rocket-powered space launch.
Then, on September 2, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) barred Virgin Galactic from flying its SpaceShipTwo pending an investigation into the July 11 flight that carried six crew members more than 50 miles into space.
On September 29, the FAA closed its incident investigation and lifted its grounding order, which was triggered because Unity 22 had deviated from assigned airspace during its descent in New Mexico. It seems that a high-altitude wind blew the aircraft off its flight path for a little less than two minutes on its way down.
In September, Virgin Galactic had announced that it was planning another SpaceShipTwo flight, Unity 23, from its New Mexico airbase, pending technical checks and future weather conditions. Last month, the company said that the earliest it could foresee opening its "flight window for Unity 23 is mid-October".
But, the company announced on Thursday that it now plans on starting its enhancement program first and conducting the Unity 23 test flight after that project has been completed and before commencing commercial service. The enhancement program, Reuters reported, is intended to improve vehicle performance and flight-rate capability.
In its announcement, Virgin Galactic said that one recent laboratory test "flagged a possible reduction in the strength margins of certain materials used to modify specific joints."
It also emphasized that the "new lab test data has had no impact on the vehicles, our test flight protocols have clearly defined strength margins, and further analysis will assess whether any additional work is required to keep them at or above established levels."
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