New York (AFP)

Space tourism company Virgin Galactic, which plans to send its first customers to space by summer 2020, has more than doubled its reservations since the end of September and now has 7,957 people on its waiting list.

The company had stopped formally selling tickets after its first space trial in December 2018.

But after recording 603 firm reservations from 60 countries at a price of up to $ 250,000 a ticket, Virgin Galactic continued to receive many requests.

The company is now preparing to offer for sale a new series of seats from Wednesday, each aspiring astronaut having to pay a deposit of $ 1,000.

The group also disclosed on Tuesday that it had generated revenue of $ 529,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019, for a loss of 72.7 million. Over the whole year, the group lost a total of $ 211 million.

It was down more than 7% in electronic trading on the New York Stock Exchange. But this decline remains relatively moderate since, just a few months after arriving on Wall Street, the company founded by Richard Branson in 2004 has become one of the most prominent actions. It was still displayed at the close, up 195% from the start of the year.

The company competes directly in its niche with Blue Origin, the company founded by Amazon boss Jeff Bezos.

© 2020 AFP