What occurred

Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE 5.91%) is progressing with its plans to construct its next-generation spaceship, asserting the location of its ultimate meeting manufacturing services. On a day when traders are feeling optimistic, the information was ok for a 5% bounce within the area tourism firm’s share value.

So what

Virgin Galactic is a area inventory that has been grounded for many of the previous yr. The shares misplaced half of their worth within the first half of 2022 as a sequence of setbacks brought about the corporate to delay the launch of scheduled service till 2023.

Buyers have begun to fret whether or not Virgin Galactic’s core enterprise will ever get airborne.

However the firm seems to be continuing with enterprise as standard. On Thursday evening, Virgin Galactic introduced it has secured a web site for ultimate meeting of its new Delta-class spaceship. The ability is positioned in Mesa, Arizona, exterior Phoenix.

The Delta-class spaceship is designed to fly weekly, and it’s key to the corporate’s plan to finally fly 400 flights per yr. Primarily based on present schedules, the spaceship may very well be obtainable for revenue-generating flights by late 2025.

The announcement comes only a week after Virgin Galactic introduced a deal with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to design and assemble a brand new technology of motherships that may assist get the spaceships into orbit.

Now what

The progress is to be applauded, however traders ought to word that these offers do little to deal with the 2 major questions hanging over Virgin Galactic shares. After years of delays, we’re nonetheless ready to see if Virgin Galactic has the correct stuff to finally provide common revenue-generating missions. And as soon as it proves that, it nonetheless wants to ascertain there’s sufficient demand for its companies to maintain a high-cost marketing strategy over time.

The jury remains to be out on Virgin Galactic as an funding, and there is not a lot for traders to do proper now apart from rejoice the progress and hope for the very best. It is an thrilling firm with nice potential, however even with these developments, the inventory stays extremely speculative and may solely be held as a part of a well-diversified portfolio.