Virgin Galactic blames coronavirus restrictions as it delays space flight

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. (NYSE:SPCE) has pushed back the date of a planned space flight due to new coronavirus restrictions. The space tourism company had scheduled a sub-orbital space flight of its VSS Unity space plane for some time between this Thursday, November 19 and next Monday, November 23. It was planned to be the first human spaceflight from the company's Spaceport America base in New Mexico and it was due to include revenue-generating payloads as part of Nasa's flight opportunities program. READ: How to invest in space stocks via ETFs But after the New Mexico health department issued new guidelines about limiting the spread of the COVID-19 virus, Virgin Galactic said it will be "minimizing its operational footprint" at its New Mexico facilities and, after checking with local government officials, the planned flight will be rescheduled. "With the health and safety of our team members in mind, and in accordance with the recent direction from the New Mexico Department of Health, we will be minimizing our New Mexico operations to the greatest degree possible," said Virgin Galactic chief executive Michael Colglazier. "While these new restrictions cause us to adjust our flight schedule, we take this pause in stride and will be prepared to resume our pre-flight procedures and announce a new test flight window as soon as we can." According to the company's quarterly results earlier this month, it has roughly 600 fully paid up 'future astronauts' registered as of October 31, but said it will close its ‘One Small Step’ programme at the end of the calendar year with a further 900 or so potential customers signed up so far to the scheme where a fully refundable registration fee of US$1,000 reserves you a place on a space flight when one becomes available.  For the third quarter of 2020 Virgin Galactic made a net loss of US$77mln compared to US$63mln in the second quarter, and had a cash position of US$742mln at the end of September.