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Virgin Galactic’s first “Delta class” spaceplane has just made its maiden voyage.
The new generation suborbital vehicle, named Apeiron (Greek for “Boundless”), took off for the first time on Thursday October 28. Flying under the wings of its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, Apeiron traveled from Virgin’s manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, to its launch site, Spaceport America in New Mexico.
“Seeing the ship fly under Eve to Spaceport America was a few years in the making,” Galactic Virgo CEO Michael Colglazier said in a statement Thursday. “To our team and our astronaut community: your spacecraft has arrived.”
Apeiron will undergo a series of checks and tests at Spaceport America, leading up to the planned start of commercial service in spring 2027.
During these customer flights, Eve will carry Apeiron to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet (13,700 meters) and then release the spaceplane. Apeiron will launch its onboard rocket engine, which will carry the six-passenger, two-pilot vehicle into suborbital space.
Passengers will experience a few minutes of weightlessness and see the curve of the Earth in the darkness of space before descending for a runway landing at Spaceport America.
Virgin Galactic has already done this, with its VSS Unity spaceplane. Unity has flown seven commercial suborbital missions during its period of operation, which took place from June 2023 to June 2024.
The Apeiron and other Delta-class aircraft are built for a much heavier workload, according to Virgin Galactic.
“Designed to fly twice per week with a lifespan of more than 500 missions, each spacecraft in the Next Generation Fleet is built to support the economics of a large-scale commercial operation, with an increased flight cadence and a cost profile unprecedented in the industry,” company representatives wrote in the same statement.
And there will indeed be a fleet, if all goes according to plan. The second Delta ship, for example, is under construction and should enter service in mid-2027, according to Virgin Galactic.
Apeiron and its Delta-class siblings will have to travel a lot to cope with the Virgin Galactic delay: nearly 700 ticket holders are currently waiting to fly, depending on the company. And demand remains high; the last batch of seats, priced at $750,000 each, was sold. Virgin plans to sell the next tranche of tickets for $850,000 each, LATTE Luxury News reported.
When Apeiron is up and running, it will be the only game in town for suborbital space tourists.
Virgin Galactic has already shared the skies with Jeff Bezos Blue originwho transported paying customers to the final frontier in his New Shepard vehicle. New Shepard completed 14 crewed suborbital flights between July 2021 and January 2026, but is currently grounded while the company focuses on helping NASA land Artemis astronauts on the moon.
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