Boat ticket prices rise to $750,000! Virgin Galactic (SPAC.US) narrowed Q4 net losses by 17%, Delta's spacecraft to conduct first test next month serving as a "lifesaving straw"

Virgin Galactic (SPCE.US) officially released its financial performance report for the fourth quarter and full year of the 2025 fiscal year after the closing bell on March 30, 2026, Eastern Time. The report showed that due to the commercial flight vacuum period caused by the retirement of the first-generation spacecraft VSS Unity, the company's fourth-quarter revenue was only $312,000, below the analyst average expectation of $360,000. The total revenue for 2025 dropped to approximately $2 million. However, the company performed better than market expectations on the profit side, narrowing its net loss significantly to $63 million in the fourth quarter, a 17% improvement compared to the same period in 2024. The diluted earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter were a loss of $0.98, better than Wall Street's previous expectation of a loss between $1.12 and $1.51 per share. In terms of cash reserves and operating expenses, Virgin Galactic's balance sheet presents a sense of urgency in keeping up with time. As of December 31, 2025, the company's total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities amounted to $338 million, a slight reduction from the previous quarter end, mainly due to research and development expenses for the Delta class spacecraft and the construction of a new factory in Arizona. According to the financial guidance provided by management, the free cash flow for the first quarter of 2026 is expected to remain in the range of negative $90 million to $95 million. Market analysts generally point out that at the current burn rate, the existing cash flow can only support about 4 to 5 quarters of operations. This raises concerns about whether the company can resume commercial operations as scheduled by the end of 2026, which is considered a critical red line for the company's survival. Progress on the business execution level was the focus of this earnings conference call and serves as the core cornerstone supporting future stock price expectations. CEO Michael Colglazier confirmed that production of the first Delta class spacecraft is nearing completion and plans to commence key ground testing in April 2026. According to the company's latest strategic roadmap, Virgin Galactic aims to launch its first suborbital test flight in the third quarter of 2026 and strive to return to commercial orbit in the fourth quarter of the same year. In order to further optimize future unit economic benefits, the company also announced an increase in the price of a single ticket to $750,000, approximately $100,000 higher than before, with the goal of achieving positive cash flow in 2027 using the high turnover and profit margins of the Delta spacecraft. Virgin Galactic's 2025 annual report sends a clear signal to the capital markets of the "dawn before the dawn." While the current extremely low revenue levels have made some investors hesitant, the narrowing of the loss margin and the timely progress of the Delta class spacecraft project have mitigated the negative impact of the performance vacuum period to some extent. As of the time of writing, the stock price had risen over 5% after hours, reaching $2.28. The current focus of the market has shifted completely from short-term quarterly losses to the technological validation milestones of the first half of 2026. If the Delta spacecraft can successfully pass ground and flight tests, Virgin Galactic is poised to break the long-standing profit deadlock in the commercial space industry and officially usher in the industrial era of space tourism operations. It is worth mentioning that after Blue Origin announced the suspension of flights of its New Shepard rocket in January, Virgin Galactic became the only major company focusing on short-distance space tourism. Virgin Galactic also announced that its second spacecraft is expected to enter service at the end of the fourth quarter of this year or early in 2027, when the company plans to further expand its spaceflight operations.