Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson, far left, and CEO Michael Colglazier, far right, stand with the crew of the Galactic 07 mission. But Virgin Galactic needs a great suborbital spaceship. But it's a far cry from the forecast Virgin Galactic sold investors on – more than 3,000 "cumulative passengers flown" by 2023 – when it went public five years ago. But that leaves a hiatus before the first Delta spacecraft debuts, with the key target of a first commercial flight in 2026. As a reminder, human spacecraft development is often years delayed, and Virgin Galactic has in the past been no exception: Virgin Galactic was supposed to begin spaceflights in 2010, but didn't until 2018.

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Persons: Sir Richard Branson, Michael Colglazier, CNBC's Michael Sheetz, Galactic's, Colglazier, That's, Virgin Organizations: Virgin Galactic, VSS Unity, Galactic, Unity, VSS Imagine, VSS Inspire, VSS, Delta