Richard Branson rules out further investment in Virgin Galactic

Virgin Galactic, which specializes in tourist space flights, announced in November it would cut jobs and suspend commercial flights for 18 months from next year, writes FT Richard Branson

British entrepreneur Richard Branson, whose fortune is estimated at $2.9 billion by FORBES , has ruled out further investment in his loss-making space travel company Virgin Galactic, telling The Financial Times that his business empire no longer has the “deep pockets” to do so.

Virgin Galactic, founded by Branson in 2004 and specializing in tourist space flights, announced in November it would cut jobs and suspend commercial flights for 18 months from next year as it tries to save money to develop a larger craft that could take passengers to the border. space.

Branson founded Virgin Galactic in 2004. 900 people have already bought tickets for $250 thousand for a future flight into space, including Justin Bieber, Leonardo DiCaprio and Ashton Kutcher. In the summer of 2021, the billionaire on the Virgin Galactic spacecraft made a suborbital flight nine days earlier than his competitor, the founder of Amazon and Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos.

The company said it has enough funding until 2026, when Delta is expected to enter service. At the same time, FT notes, some analysts believe that Virgin Galactic will ask investors for more money for this in 2025.

Asked if he would consider putting more money into the business if necessary, Branson told the newspaper: “We don't have a lot of financial resources post- covid , and Virgin Galactic has $1 billion or so. I think it [the Virgin Galactic project] should have enough funds to do the job on its own."

The billionaire said he "still loves" Virgin Galactic and that the project has "really proven itself and the technology" for commercial spaceflight. Virgin Galactic in October announced the completion of its sixth space mission, Galactic 05, in six months and the tenth to date for scientific exploration . Over the summer, Virgin Galactic completed its first commercial flight to the edges of space on the VSS Unity. The ship rose approximately 80 km above the New Mexico desert, and passengers experienced several minutes of weightlessness. In the usa, this height is defined as the boundary of space. The International Aeronautical Federation defines it as 100 km.

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Virgin Group remains one of the largest shareholders of Virgin Galactic, despite the fact that in 2020 and 2021 it sold shares worth more than $1 billion and reduced its stake to 7.7%, the FT notes.

In April, Branson's other company, small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit, filed for bankruptcy and went out of business in May. In January, Virgin Orbit carried out the first ever launch of a spacecraft from the UK . The LauncherOne rocket was supposed to launch nine small satellites into orbit, but the launch was unsuccessful.