© Reuters
By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Virgin Galactic’s (NYSE:) market cap was up by almost a fifth in Friday’s premarket trading as it secured approval from the U.S. aviation safety regulator to fly people to space.
The shares were up 18.5% on the NYSE.
A May 22 test flight of VMS Eve and VSS Unity was the company’s third crewed spaceflight and the first-ever spaceflight from Spaceport America, New Mexico.
Virgin Galactic said it will continue preparing for the remaining three test flights, its first fully-crewed test flight planned for this summer.
The development is a shot-in-the-arm for the company promoted by billionaire Richard Branson as it faces competition from Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in the private space travel industry.
Branson and entities owned by him sold 5.58 million shares or a 2.5% stake in the company for about $150 million earlier in the year. They still hold a 24% stake in the company.
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