Markets
US-SPACE-TOURISM-BEZOS-BRANSON
(Getty Images)

Virgin Galactic soars after boosting space tourism ticket prices to $750,000

Virgin had paused its space tourism program after a June 2024 flight in order to focus on building a better spacecraft.

Luke Kawa

Rocket ship, blastoff.

Virgin Galactic is jumping on Tuesday, with the stock up nearly 7% as of 7:18 a.m. ET, after the space tourism company said it’s ready to restart taking well-heeled customers to infinity and beyond, selling 50 slots for space travel at $750,000 apiece.

During its Q4 conference call on Monday, CEO Michael Colglazier said seats for company’s next tranche of availability would be priced even higher than that, and outlined plans to ramp space flights next year.

Virgin Galactic flight schedule
Source: company presentation

Virgin had paused its space tourism program after a June 2024 flight to focus on building a better spacecraft.

The news on ticket sales restarting helped boost the stock despite a middling set of Q4 results, which saw the company’s revenues come in a little lower than expected while its adjusted EBITDA loss was slimmer than feared.

The stock jumped as much as 25% in postmarket trading on Monday before paring those gains early on Tuesday morning. Other space-oriented stocks like Rocket Lab and AST SpaceMobile are also trading to the upside amid this new.

A warning of this price hike also prompted a rally in the past: shares of Virgin also soared in May 2025 when management said that the price of tickets would be rising from their prior level of $600,000.

Even with today’s gain, shares of the once hot SPAC IPO are down more than 99% from their 2021 peak.

More Markets

See all Markets
markets

SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

Latest Stories

Sherwood Media, LLC and Chartr Limited produce fresh and unique perspectives on topical financial news and are fully owned subsidiaries of Robinhood Markets, Inc., and any views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of any other Robinhood affiliate, including Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, Robinhood Securities, LLC, Robinhood Crypto, LLC, Robinhood Money, LLC, Robinhood U.K. Ltd, Robinhood Derivatives, LLC, Robinhood Gold, LLC, Robinhood Asset Management, LLC, Robinhood Credit, Inc., Robinhood Ventures DE, LLC and, where applicable, its managed investment vehicles.