Virgin Galactic's First Commercial Space Tourism Flight Sparks 30% Share Spike

Virgin Galactic announced that it plans to launch its first commercial space tourism flight, called Galactic 01, between June 27 and June 30, with its second commercial flight to follow in early August and monthly commercial flights after that. The company's shares spiked more than 30% in extended trading on Thursday. Galactic 01 will carry three members of the Italian Air Force to conduct microgravity research with science payloads. The launch will move Virgin Galactic toward showing it can fly commercial flights regularly, which is crucial to its long-term success.