What happened
Virgin Galactic (SPCE 6.30%) stock crashed on Monday morning after its rival in space tourism, Blue Origin, announced its latest "get" of a high-profile passenger that it will fly to space.
As of 1:50 p.m. ET, Virgin Galactic stock is down 7.5%.
Image source: Getty Images.
So what
So far, Blue Origin has safely flown 14 passengers to the edge of space and back atop its remotely piloted New Shepard rocket. More important than just the number of passengers it's flown, however, are their names:
- Good Morning America co-host and former NFL star Michael Strahan.
- Laura Shepard Churchley, daughter to astronaut Alan Shepard, who was America's first astronaut in space -- and the guy Blue Origin named its rocket after!
- And most famously of all, the original Captain Kirk -- legendary television actor William Shatner.
William Shatner speaking at ComicCon Indy in 2021. Image source: Author photo.
That makes three crewed spaceflights to Blue Origin, and at least three high-profile passengers who've come along for the ride. (Blue Origin declines to say whether they paid for the ride.) And now, Blue Origin is gearing up to send a passenger that will help get it some millennial and social media cred -- Saturday Night Live comedian Pete Davidson.
As the company announced this morning, Davidson will fly alongside "five customers" when New Shepard next blasts off on March 23.
Now what
What does this mean for Blue Origin? Aside from the PR coup of getting Davidson to ride its rocket, Blue Origin's description of its passenger list as including Davidson and five "customers" -- note that they didn't say "other customers" -- suggests that:
- Davidson will not have to pay for its flight.
- The other five folks riding the rocket will.
- And no, Blue Origin still isn't saying how much it charges for its tickets, at least not publicly.
But what does this mean for Virgin Galactic? Well not to put too fine a point on it, but it means that not only has Blue Origin flown several times more often than Virgin has, but it's now generating revenue from space tourism -- which Virgin Galactic won't do until it starts carrying paying tourist passengers later this year.
And with every launch it makes, and every celebrity passenger it carries, Blue Origin's lead over Virgin Galactic just grows and grows.
