Virgin Galactic to become the first space tourism company to go public

Virgin Galactic will soon become the first publicly traded space tourism company. A public shell company called Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp will acquire 49 percent of Virgin Galactic which was founded by Richard Branson in 2004. The deal involves an investment of roughly $800 million, according to the Wall Street Journal, and should fund its spaceships until operations can begin turning a profit.
Virgin Galactic projects that it’ll be profitable on an annual basis by August 2021, and will fly its first customers within a year, reports CNBC.
The investment comes as the nascent space tourism industry is still trying to work out its business models. Branson’s Virgin Galactic will eventually compete with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin…

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