Virgin Galactic (SPCE) scheduled its next test flight for May as the space tourism company fixes an issue that was discovered earlier this month. SPCE stock fell.
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Virgin Galactic Earnings Report
Estimates: A loss of 31 cents per share, vs. a 37 cent per share loss in the year-ago quarter, on zero revenue.
Results: Loss of 31 cents a share on zero revenue. Total Future Astronauts remained at approximately 600, as of Dec. 31.
The May flight would come about three months after the company opened a window for another attempt at a powered test flight of its SpaceShipTwo vehicle.
Virgin Galactic said it’s completing modifications and conducting technical checks ahead of the flight, which will include revenue-generating payloads as part of the NASA Flight Opportunities Program.
Late Thursday, the company said it uncovered additional electromagnetic interference issues during preflight preparations for its Feb. 13 flight. It will take about nine weeks to resolve. A modification to the flight control computer is being prototyped now and testing on the part can start.
The new problem arose as Virgin Galactic sought to fix an issue that aborted a powered test flight on Dec. 12, after a sudden halt in the rocket motor’s ignition sequence. Engineers found that the onboard computer that monitors the rocket motor lost connection. That triggered a fail-safe that halted the rocket motor’s ignition.
After that test, the Unity spacecraft’s flight-control computer system was modified to lower electromagnetic interference and prevent a reboot of the rocket motor, said Mike Moses, president of space missions and safety.
But pre-flight check earlier this month found the modifications “unintentionally created additional noise within our sensor environment,” he added.
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Test Flight Looms Over SPCE Stock
Shares fell 12.6% late after closing down 8.4% at 42.24 on the stock market today. SPCE stock is currently in profit-taking range after breaking out of a cup base with a 35.92 entry in late January.
Boeing (BA), whose venture capital arm HorizonX has a $20 million minority stake in Virgin Galactic, slipped 5.6% Thursday after jumping 8% Wednesday.
Early Thursday, the company announced that CFO Jon Campagna is stepping down Mar. 1 and will be replaced by Doug Ahrens, who had served as CFO of chipmaker Mellanox. Virgin Galactic also named Swami Iyer as president of aerospace systems and Stephen Justice as vice president of engineering. Justice previously worked at Lockheed Martin’s (LMT) top secret Skunk Works research facility.
The December test flight was supposed to complete data-gathering for the final two FAA verification and validation milestones. The next attempt will try to capture that data and evaluate the upgraded horizontal stabilizers and flight controls.
Virgin Galactic had hoped to see its first commercial flight in Q1 2021, but the latest delays put that well into Q2 at the soonest.
If the retest is successful, the company has said it plans a second powered flight, a key step needed before revenue-generating commercial flights can start.
On Thursday, the company also said significant milestones on a second spaceship have been completed ahead of a scheduled rollout on March 30. Virgin Galactic is also accelerating enhancements to the Eve mothership vehicle, which carries SpaceShipTwo before it’s released, and is preparing for second-generation mothership program.
Meanwhile, the Italian Air Force will fly three passengers and multiple payloads on a Virgin Galactic flight in late summer or early fall, generating revenue for the company.
Wall Street has been exceptionally bullish on the stock despite the lack of revenue-generating flights. But SPCE stock was downgraded to neutral from buy by UBS earlier this month as analysts think that a successful test flight by Virgin Galactic is already priced into its shares.
Follow Gillian Rich on Twitter for space news and more.
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