Virgin Galactic Will Not Be Launching Tourists to Space This Year Due To Technical Delays

Virgin Galactic announced that they will be delaying the next test flight of the SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle for over two months due to some technical issues as part of the revamped flight test program.

The company's shares fell in trading on Friday after the fourth-quarter results revealed that delays of its test flight will push the company's first space tourist flights to 2022.

Technical Tweaks Delays Flight Tests

Space News reported that Virgin Galactic executives blamed the aborted or delayed test flights of SpaceShipTwo due to electromagnetic interference (EMI) that rebooted a flight computer just as the spacecraft ignited its hybrid rocket engine.

Luckily, the vehicle glided to a safe landing at Spaceport America in New Mexico. According to the company's president Mike Moses, a new flight-control computer system most likely increased levels of EMI.

Virgin Galactic has already taken steps to avoid such an event from happening again and prepared to make another powered test flight on February 13. However, technicians noted that there are still EMI issues with the vehicle systems.

Moses said that the company is pursuing a modification to the flight control computer that is the source of the EMI which will be tested in the coming weeks in the lab and on the vehicle itself before doing test flights again in May.

Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier said that the company is sticking to its flight test program wherein the May test flight will be followed by two more flight tests with a "full cabin" of company employees on the first test and by founder Richard Branson on board with the next.

But there are no exact dates as of yet but it is expected that both tests will occur this summer.

Virgin Galactic's 2021 Project

Virgin Galactic announced via Twitter that the company's next major event will not be with VSS Unity but rather will feature the rollout of the company's second spacecraft and the first of its SpaceShip III generation, CNBC reported.

According to Colglazier, SpaceShip III features "a modular design with enhanced fabrication and assembly processes" that is expected to perform better in terms of flight rate and maintenance.

The SpaceShip III is expected to roll out on March 30 followed by a flight testing in summer at the same time as the SpaceShipTwo, Space.com reported.

"The Future of the Fleet. Rollout, March 30th," Virgin Galactic wrote in their Twitter post on February 25 along with a photo of the SpaceShip III.

The company also announced that it will"implement enhancements and accelerate some long-term maintenance updates" to the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft" following the flight tests.

After that, it will be time for space tourists to step aboard as VSS Unity is expected to begin flying private astronauts and SpaceShip III will undergo flight testing at that time as well. These events are expected to happen in 2022.

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