The year 2023 was quite successful for the space company “Virgin Galactic”. The company flew its first space tourism mission in August and has completed a total of five commercial space flights this year. At the same time, next year “Virgin Galactic” wants to slow down in this area, then with new spacecraft and many times more power, they will make weekly flights into space. However, in order to achieve this, additional finances are needed, which the company hopes to obtain at the expense of layoffs.
“Virgin Galactic” CEO Michael Colglaizer revealed in an e-mail to employees at the beginning of the week that he plans to lay off 18% of the workforce, or 185 employees. This move is expected to save the company about $25 million, which will be used to build new spacecraft. It’s about the Delta-class spacecraft, which Colglazer calls the company’s next driver of profitability and growth. That is why all efforts should be focused on putting them into operation.
The company plans to open a new factory next year, where it hopes to produce six spacecraft annually. With big plans, Virgin Galactic will stop commercial spaceflight in 2024 and focus on manufacturing Delta-class spacecraft. They can carry six passengers at the same time. Flights with these spaceships are planned to be carried out every week, but during the year, a total of 400 takeoffs are planned with all of them. Kolglaizer has revealed that testing of “Delta” is scheduled for 2025, so that the first flights with the new spacecraft can be made in 2026.
2023-11-11 10:00:00
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