What Happened to Virgin Galactic?

Virgin Galactic was the deal that launched the SPAC mania. In 2019, Chamath Palihapitiya's Social Capital Hedosophia merged with Richard Branson's space tourism company, making it the first publicly traded human spaceflight company. The stock captured the public imagination, eventually reaching $62.80 during the meme stock frenzy of 2021.

The core promise was simple: fly paying tourists to the edge of space aboard VSS Unity, a rocket-powered spaceplane launched from a carrier aircraft. Branson himself flew on a test flight in July 2021, briefly beating Jeff Bezos to space.

But commercial operations proved far more limited than the SPAC presentation suggested. Virgin Galactic projected $600 million in revenue by 2023; actual revenue was $1.7 million from a handful of flights. The SpaceShipTwo vehicle required extensive maintenance between flights, limiting cadence to a few per year rather than the weekly operations originally envisioned.

Chamath sold most of his stake by 2021, cashing out while retail investors held bags. The company announced a pivot to a new 'Delta-class' vehicle that wouldn't fly until 2026 at earliest, essentially hitting pause on revenue for years. A 1-for-20 reverse stock split in June 2024 was needed to avoid delisting. Virgin Galactic has become the quintessential SPAC zombie — technically alive but burning cash with no clear path to viability.