Virgin Galactic names spaceship Apeiron, delays commercial flights to Q2 2027
Virgin Galactic named its first Delta-class ship Apeiron and moved its commercial return to early Q2 2027.
Virgin Galactic has named its newest spaceship Apeiron and pushed its return to commercial spaceflight to early in the second quarter of 2027. The ship travelled from Mesa, Arizona, to Spaceport America in New Mexico attached to the mothership Eve.
The company said the longer timeline allows exhaustive testing and validation of the integrated avionics software. This is the second delay this year. In May Virgin was targeting a return to commercial service by the fourth quarter of 2026, and in August it moved that to February 2027. The second ship is scheduled for completion in late Q2 or Q3 2027.
Virgin has not flown to space since VSS Unity's final mission in June 2024. Unity resumed glide flights in May, but those were used to train pilots and reached about 9 miles, against roughly 55 miles for a spaceflight.
Apeiron is the first of the Delta-class ships, which are designed to carry six passengers up to eight times a month. The latest seats are priced at $850k. Virgin is moving more than 100 ticket holders into their first phase of flight readiness, with more cohorts to follow on a rolling basis.
Sourcepayloadspace.com