On Tuesday, commercial spaceflight specialist Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) revealed its latest fleet addition. The ‘VVS Imagine’ will be Virgin’s second spacecraft available for testing and also represents the beginning of its new vehicle class, ‘SpaceShip III’.
Virgin Galactic CEO Micheal Colglazier stated that in order to scale, Virgin will need more spaceships that also have quicker turnaround times between their flights. The latter is the purpose behind the creation of the new ship class.
The company has now built three space vehicles in total. The ‘VVS Enterprise’ crashed in a fatal incident in 2014, while the ‘VVS Unity’ conducted two successful space flights over the last few years.
Colgazier is optimistic about future testing and the industry development as a whole, recognizing the U.S. government's role in opening the commercial space industry, stimulating private investment and innovation in a “good capital market environment.”