What happened
Shares of Sir Ricard Branson's Virgin Galactic (SPCE 3.15%) -- the original space stock -- were trading 5% higher as of 1:50 p.m. ET Thursday after the company confirmed it is on track to launch a second batch of space tourists past the Kármán line in August.
So what
Just two weeks ago, Virgin Galactic made history by launching its first-ever commercial space tourism flight, carrying three Italian Air Force officers into space to conduct experiments at a price of $200,000 apiece.
Virgin Galactic also promised that it would follow up this "Galactic 01" mission with a "Galactic 02" mission in August -- and begin launching space tourism flights at the rate of one per month thereafter.
Two weeks later, Virgin Galactic has confirmed that all systems remain green for this plan to take place, and confirmed the date for the Galactic 02 flight. The window for this flight opens on Aug. 10, which means it could take place as early as that date. If a delay is called for due to unfavorable weather, for example, the flight could still take place shortly after the target date.
Now what
Virgin Galactic didn't give any more detail than this on Galactic 02. We don't yet know, for example, how many passengers will board Galactic 02, or precisely what their tickets cost. The prices for the first 600 tickets Virgin Galactic has sold reportedly ranged between $200,000 and $250,000. Thus, we don't know exactly how much revenue this flight will generate for the company.
We do know that its Unity spaceplane is rated to hold no more than six passengers at a time, however. So we can assume that even with the priciest tickets, this mission will generate no more than $1.5 million in revenue for Virgin Galactic. For a company currently burning more than $100 million per quarter in negative free cash flow, that's not a lot of income.
More important for investors is what we'll learn (eventually) about how much flying these commercial missions adds to the company's operating costs. By the time its third-quarter results roll around in November, Virgin Galactic could have two or even three such missions on the books, giving us valuable data for comparing its operating costs before commercial operations commenced to its costs after.
That's the real significance of these flights for investors, I think. And it's more important than just knowing the date when the next flight will go off.
