Boeing investing USD20 million in Virgin Galactic

Wednesday, 09 Oct, 2019 0

Boeing said it will pump $20 million into Sir Richard Branson’s space tourism firm Virgin Galactic.

Boeing will take a minority stake in Virgin Galactic once it goes public and the companies aim to ‘explore the future of high-speed mobility and commercial access to space’ together.

Virgin Galactic is preparing to go public in a merger announced earlier this year with Social Capital Hedosophia.

The merger values Virgin Galactic at about $1.5 billion.

"Our teams have been talking for quite some time now. The broader capabilities of Boeing are unmatched in mobility and experience in human spaceflight," said Virgin Galactic CEO George Whitesides.

"We’re over the moon about this partnership."

Brian Schettler, senior managing director of Boeing HorizonX Ventures told CNBC: "Twenty million dollars is a drop in the bucket for the $1 billion that they’ve raised. It’s really to catalyze a bigger partnership."

According to Whitesides Virgin is in ‘the final stretch’ of testing and still aims to launch commercial space flights next year.

The two most recent test flights reached the edge of space successfully and since then it has captured 3,000 more customers who have signed on to its wait list.

Virgin’s spacecraft Unity holds up to six passengers and plans to expand to five spacecraft by 2023.

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Editor for TravelMole North America and Asia pacific regions. Ray is a highly experienced (15+ years) skilled journalist and editor predominantly in travel, hospitality and lifestyle working with a huge number of major market-leading brands. He has also cover in-depth news, interviews and features in general business, finance, tech and geopolitical issues for a select few major news outlets and publishers.

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