Virgin Galactic announces January flight window for sixth commercial spaceflight

The first Virgin Galactic flight with four paying passengers is preparing for takeoff.

The company announced this week a flight window of Jan. 26 for its next trip to suborbit.

The flight window for Virgin Galactic’s sixth commercial flight to space — its seventh overall flight since May 2023 — comes as the company has experienced some turbulence.

The company in November laid off about 18% of its workforce, 73 of which worked in New Mexico, while also announcing it would put a pause on spaceflights next year while working on its next generation of Delta ships. And the company’s founder, Richard Branson, earlier this month told the British newspaper the Financial Times that he no longer intends to invest money in the spaceflight company because of challenges his business empire has faced coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

January’s flight, dubbed “Galactic 06,” will include four private passengers who weren’t named by the company. Commander Mike Masucci will command the VMS Eve mothership, with pilot Dan Alix. Commander CJ Sturckow and pilot Nicola Pecile will fly VSS Unity into suborbit.

“Our inaugural year of commercial service demonstrated our spaceflight system’s ability to regularly deliver a safe and unparalleled customer experience for our astronauts and established new turn time records for reusable human spaceflight systems,” said Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier. “We’re excited to begin 2024 by bringing four new Virgin Galactic astronauts to space with our ‘Galactic 06’ mission.”

Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. were at $2.55 on Wednesday.