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.
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