First flights scheduled for second quarter of 2023, Virgin Galactic says
Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. shares rose more than 3% in the extended session Thursday after the space-tourism company reported a wider-than-expected quarterly loss but said it was on track to launch its commercial service next year.
Virgin Galactic SPCE, +1.10% said it lost $146 million, or 55 cents a share, in the third quarter, compared with a loss of $48 million, or 32 cents a share, in the third quarter of 2021.
Revenue dropped to $767,000, from $2.6 million a year ago.
Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected the company to report a loss of 41 cents a share on $100,000 in sales.
“We remain on track to launch commercial service in the second quarter of 2023, and we look forward to validating the modifications to VMS Eve and VSS Unity with multiple scheduled test flights in the coming months,” the company said in a statement, referring to its carrier spacecraft and spaceship.
Virgin Galactic said its cash position remained “strong,” holding on to cash and equivalents of $1.1 billion as of Sept. 30.
Shares of Virgin Galactic have lost more than 65% in the year, compared with losses of around 21% for the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.06%.