Virgin Galactic inks an agreement with NASA to train its astronauts

Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) announced to have signed an agreement with NASA on Monday that aims at collaboration on a programme that will see Sir Richard Branson’s company training the astronauts for NASA to be sent to the International Space Station on private missions. Sir Branson recently offloaded another chunk of his stake in Virgin in the first week of June.

Shares of the company opened more than 15% up on Monday. At £13.41 per share, Virgin Galactic is currently about 40% up year to date in the stock market after recovering from a low of £8.43 per share in March. Learn more about the financial analysis of a company.

Space missions will range from tourism to scientific research

The Space Act Agreement with Johnson Space Centre (NASA) lays the foundation for Virgin’s astronaut program in Houston. Virgin Galactic recently reported a £42.82 million adjusted EBITDA loss in Q1.

As per the agreement, the space tourism company will be required to establish a “private orbital astronaut readiness program” that will be identical to the one it uses to train its tourists for space flights. Virgin also expressed plans of purchasing seats on the space station flights.

The program will promote space missions ranging from tourism for private citizens to scientific research supported by the government.  CEO George Whitesides of Virgin Galactic stated in a comment on Monday:

“We are excited to partner with NASA on this private orbital spaceflight program, which will not only allow us to use our spaceflights platform, but also offer our space training infrastructure to NASA and other agencies.”

The information regarding what Virgin Galactic will be charging NASA for its services, however, was not divulged on Monday.

The spaceflight company currently has 603 reservations to fly private passengers to space. As per Virgin, passengers have paid between £160K to £201K for the tickets. The company is committed to extensive testing at its New Mexico operating base before it starts commercial service.

NASA’s Space Launch System will debut in 2021

Further details of the program and NASA’s collaboration with Virgin Galactic at large, as per Administrator Jim Bridenstine of NASA, will be available this week.

NASA’s space launch system is expected to be the agency’s ride that will transport humans to the moon in the next few years. The system is scheduled to go live in 2021.  

Virgin Galactic performed fairly upbeat in the stock market last year with an annual gain of about 15%. At the time of writing, the Mojave-headquartered company has a market cap of 3.51 billion.