Virgin Galactic Completes New Delta Spaceplane Factory in Arizona

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Virgin Galactic’s future fleet of commercial space planes will now have a home where they will come to life starting next year.

Virgin Galactic’s new “Delta” class spaceplanes are not expected to take off until 2026. The final flight of its previous spaceplane, VSS Unity, took place on June 8 and saw a Turkish astronaut and three space tourists reach suborbital space and experience a few minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic has already named an international crew group for one of the first Delta class flights, which will include former American Virgin Galactic private astronaut Kellie Gerardi, who flew aboard Galactic 05 in November 2023, along with Canadian Shawna Pandya and Irishwoman Norah Patten into space no earlier than 2026.

To help build its fleet of Delta-class vehicles, the aerospace company announced in a statement that its new multipurpose facility has been completed in Mesa, Arizona, and preparations are underway to make it the primary construction and assembly site for its next generation of Delta spaceplanes.

Virgin Galactic expects to install final manufacturing hardware by the end of the year. After that, with the arrival of important subsets, such as the feather systemfuselage and wings, the Virgin Galactic team anticipates construction of its first pair of Delta ships to begin in 2025.

Once production and ground testing are complete, the finished spacecraft will go to Spaceport America in New Mexico to undergo a flight test before the start of commercial operations scheduled for 2026.

“The completion of our new production facility is an important milestone in the development of our fleet of next-generation spacecraft, key to our scale and profitability,” said Michael Colglazier, virgin galactic CEO, said in the statement. “Tools will begin arriving in a matter of months to support final assembly of the spacecraft, which we expect to begin in the first quarter of 2025.”

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There are two hangars that include several bays in the multipurpose facility, which will allow maximum flexibility in the manufacturing and testing of space vehicles. Virgin Galactic uses digital twin technology, which will enable a “seamless” connection with real-time collaboration between facility workers and the company’s suppliers.

Each of the Delta ships has capacity for up to six passengers and can carry out missions up to eight times a month.