IIn a desert basin in New Mexico, Richard Branson hopes history will be made later this year with the launch of Virgin Galactic’s first commercial flights to the edge of space, with tickets costing around $450,000 (£370,000) each. .
It’s an ambitious timetable to launch the “world’s first commercial ocean liner” at Spaceport America, even though it’s already more than a decade behind schedule.
But getting to takeoff will be one of the biggest challenges of Branson’s career. The company is already facing criticism over the safety and efficiency of its operations in several lawsuits in the United States.
Branson initially hoped to send 50,000 astronauts into space by 2019, but the project has been plagued with mishaps, delays and disasters. One pilot was killed and another was injured when Virgin Galactic’s first SpaceShipTwo shuttle, VSS Enterprise, crashed in the California desert in October 2014.
The company’s active vehicles, the VMS Eve transport aircraft and VSS Unity, the second SpaceShipTwo, have not flown since Branson’s trip to the edge of space in July 2021, while the share price has fallen more than $55 at its peak at around $5.
Virgin Galactic was founded in 2004 and paying astronauts were initially expected to be flying missions by 2007. The launch date for commercial services has since been postponed. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange in October 2019. It said at the time that it anticipated launching its trading service in 2020, to mark Branson’s 70th birthday.
Some investors are now taking legal action against Virgin Galactic after the series of delays, claiming that the alleged flaws in the ship were not properly disclosed. They allege that Eve and Unity were prototypes and not designed for regular space travel, and say their claims are supported by internal corporate documents.
In one of the cases filed in December 2021 by Mark Kusnier and other investors, the complaint states: “Unity and Eve were so unstable that each flight could be their last. Cracks appeared in Eve’s wings after each flight, and some were not repaired, so much so that a Virgin Galactic employee said the wings looked like cobwebs or broken eggshells.
Investors also claim that some technical glitches or problems during flights were not properly reported, allowing Branson and others to sell shares at “artificially inflated” prices. Virgin Galactic has said that it has always adequately disclosed security and design issues.
In the case brought by Kusnier, it is alleged that one of the Unity shuttle’s horizontal stabilizers “blew up like a bag of potato chips” on a test flight in February 2019, and on the flight from Branson to the edge of space in July. In 2021, the shuttle strayed outside its glide zone, endangering the lives of the astronauts.
Virgin Galactic had described Branson’s flight as “perfect”. Nevertheless, A New Yorker Article in September 2021 revealed that the shuttle had drifted off course.
A US district court judge in New York, Allyne Ross, found in November that some statements by Virgin Galactic about the flights in February 2019 and July 2021 were “materially misleading”, according to claims established by the claimants.
The judge said: “I believe Branson had motive and opportunity with respect to statements about the success of his July 11, 2021 test flight…Branson sold more than 10 million shares for total proceeds of nearly $300 million in August 2021, just weeks before it was publicly revealed that Unity had deviated from its landing cone and was at risk of a hard landing.”
During the period covered by Kusnier’s lawsuit, from July 2019 to October 2021, Branson sold Virgin Galactic stock worth approximately $892 million, according to court documents. Branson has said the share sale provided vital funds for the airline he founded, Virgin Atlantic.
Virgin Galactic is vigorously defending legal action, and Branson has said it is focused on providing commercial space service to customers who have booked tickets. Some 900 people are already registered.
Both Eve and Unity have undergone an “upgrade” program to improve vehicle performance and “flight speed capability,” Virgin Galactic says. The company aims to conduct test flights for Eve this month and for Unity thereafter.
The first commercial passenger launch will carry an Italian air force crew for research, followed by up to six paying passengers who fly monthly. The company is also developing a new generation of spacecraft called the Delta class, which will be designed to fly weekly.
Virgin Galactic said last week that it would not comment on the ongoing litigation, but confirmed that its commercial service was set to launch later this year.
