Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson drinks Champagne after a space flight (Patrick T. Fallon/Getty Images)

Virgin Galactic’s $600,000 tickets to space are getting more expensive

The company has posted over $2 billion in losses since going public in 2019.

5/19/25 11:39AM

Bad news for anyone toying with the idea of going into space, but already perturbed by the astronomical costs: Virgin Galactic last week said that it’ll be raising the price of tickets — already around $600,000 — to get onto one of its space tourism flights next year.

Execs didn’t go into exactly how much any aspiring Neil Armstrongs or Katy Perrys could expect to cough up, though their updates on Virgin’s private space travel timeline sent shares rocketing 43% on Friday. In its Q1 update, the company reported that development of its new Delta Class spaceships, which have six seats compared to the old fleet’s four, is “on track” and that ticket sales will recommence in the first quarter of 2026, ahead of the first Delta flight in the fall.

After a turbulent ride on the market since going public via a SPAC merger in 2019, and a hell of a lot of red ink spilled, the company will need a long line of people willing to drop the equivalent of a house for a few minutes of zero gravity to make the economics work.

Galaxy brains

While Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have tended to dominate the intergalactic conversation in recent years, Richard Branson’s business has been plugging away in the space for over two decades now. However, Virgin Galactic is yet to post a profitable quarter since it became the first publicly traded space tourism company in October 2019, racking up over $2.1 billion in losses.

Meanwhile, shares are also down 99.5% from their 2021 peak, on the back of the cash burning and major delays for the company’s outer space ambitions.

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Texas sues Netflix, accusing streamer of spying on children and collecting user data without consent

The state of Texas filed a lawsuit Monday against streaming giant Netflix, alleging that the company has built a “behavioral-surveillance program of staggering scale.”

The suit alleges that Netflix is “deceptively designed” to be addictive, using features like autoplay to get viewers hooked, “mining those users for data, and then converting that data into lucrative intelligence for global advertising juggernauts.”

“When you watch Netflix, Netflix watches you,” the lawsuit reads.

“This lawsuit lacks merit and is based on inaccurate and distorted information,” Netflix said in a statement to Sherwood News. “Netflix takes our members’ privacy seriously and complies with privacy and data‑protection laws everywhere we operate.”

Texas is seeking civil penalties of “up to $10,000 per violation” of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act, along with an additional penalty of up to $250,000 per violation involving a consumer aged 65 or older.

“Netflix is not the ad-free and kid-friendly platform it claims to be. Instead, it has misled consumers while exploiting their private data to make billions,” said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton in the press release announcing the lawsuit.

Netflix did not immediately respond to a request for comment.