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 front company called Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. will acquire 49% of Virgin Galactic, founded by Richard Branson in 2004. The transaction represents an investment of approximately $ 800 million, according to the the Wall Street newspaper, and should finance its spacecraft until operations can begin to generate a profit.

Virgin Galactic expects to be profitable on an annual basis by August 2021 and to have its first customers within one year, said CNBC.

The investment comes as the nascent space tourism industry is still trying to develop its business models. Virgin Galactic Branson will eventually compete with Blue Origin Jeff Bezos and SpaceX Elon Musk. Virgin Galactic claims to have already sold hundreds of tickets at $ 250,000 per seat, but has not yet taken any of its owners on the planned 90-minute trip into space. Its passenger space plane, the VSS Unity, entered space only for the first time last December.

The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2019, subject to customary approvals.

Update July 9 at 6:55 am ET: Updated article with confirmation of the transaction and estimates for the first flights of customers and date of profitability.