What happened
Actions of Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE), which exploded on a high with the promise of a test flight on Monday, are returning to Earth today – down 4.9% from 11:45 am EST.
The reason: Virgin Galactic is rapidly facing increased competition in the space sector.
Image source: Getty Images.
And
Celebrated in its 2019 IPO as “the first and only publicly traded commercial human space flight company”, Virgin Galactic technically still holds that title, but the distinctions are starting to pile up. The past few months have given us the promise that the first “space tug” company, Acquisition of stable roadin (NASDAQ: SRAC) Momentus, will go public. This announcement was quickly followed by the announcement of the first satellite communications network for standard cell phones: Acquisition of New Providencein (NASDAQ: NPA) AST SpaceMobile.
Today, a fourth stock of potential pure space emerged when a special-purpose acquisition company Holiness (NASDAQ: HOL) has announced that it will make the small rocket company Astra public through a reverse merger.
What now
Stable Road, New Providence and Holicity have not yet completed their mergers. This means that Momentus, SpaceMobile and Astra have not yet officially IPO.
But clearly, the moment is moving in that direction, and the days when Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson can boast that buying Virgin stock is the best way to “get a little bit involved with a spaceships, owning a bit of a spaceship company, “are coming to an end. One day soon, investors may stop investing in space for the novelty factor and have to start weighing revenue and profits – and price – to determine which space stock is the best bargain.
It is not yet known whether Virgin Galactic will remain a leader in this type of competition.