Virgin Galactic’s real goal may be point-to-point travel around Earth

Enlarge / In February, Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo reached space for the second time in 10 weeks. (credit: Virgin Galactic)

Nearly a month has passed since Virgin Galactic became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange, opening trading at $11.75 a share. Since that time the stock has had a rough ride, falling to under $7.50 a share as of Tuesday morning and losing more than a third of its value under the SPCE symbol.

Although the offering provides investors a unique opportunity to purchase stock in a space-tourism company involved in human spaceflight, there are questions about the viability of Virgin Galactic's business model and ability to profitably send thousands of humans safely on suborbital space rides.

Point-to-point

However, the firm's new chairman, venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, recently suggested that the company's long-term profitability may come more through travel than space tourism. At the Phocuswright travel industry conference last week, Palihapitiya spoke about his interest in point-to-point travel on Earth.

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