Virgin Galactic's ship.

-

Matt Hartman / AP / SIPA

We will have to wait another year.

Virgin Galactic will not send the first tourists to space this year, but in 2022. The subsidiary of the British company Virgin, which published its results for the fourth quarter of 2020 and presented its results for the past year, has reviewed its commercial operating schedule, reports

Numerama

.

This decision, which was announced at the end of February, is the consequence of the failure of a test flight conducted in early December.

The flight of his spacecraft, the

VSS Unity

, had to be cut short due to a technical issue.

The two pilots returned to land on Earth a little over an hour after the launch of the test which aimed to reach the border with space.

Three manned flights scheduled this year

This failure causes a delay in the preparation.

The next test will not take place until next May.

In addition, it will be necessary to count on other evaluations which were postponed to the summer and the fall.

These are three manned test flights that are scheduled before 2022 by Virgin Galactic, indicates

Numerama

.

A commercial flight for 2021 is therefore impossible.

The Future of the Fleet.



Rollout, March 30th.

pic.twitter.com/Y6Y3NvNTDp

- Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) February 25, 2021

But Virgin Galactic has still planned an event for this year: the presentation of

SpaceShip 3

, its next space vehicle, which is scheduled for March 30.

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