Virgin Galactic announces new spaceship manufacturing facility 

In July, Virgin Galactic (Mojave, Calif., U.S.), an aerospace and space travel company producing the all composite spacecraft, VSS Unity, signed a long-term lease for a new final assembly manufacturing facility for its next-generation Delta class spaceships. Located in Mesa, Greater Phoenix area, adjacent to the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport, the facility will be capable of producing up to six spaceships per year and will bring hundreds of highly skilled aerospace engineering and manufacturing jobs to the area, according to the company.

The Delta class spaceship is Virgin Galactic’s production vehicle that is designed to fly weekly, supporting the company’s target of 400 flights per year from Spaceport America in New Mexico. Based on current schedules, the first of these ships is expected to commence revenue-generating payload flights in late 2025, progressing to private astronaut flights in 2026.

The company is currently selecting various suppliers to build the spaceship’s major subassemblies, which will be delivered to the new Mesa facility for final assembly. Virgin Galactic motherships will ferry completed spaceships to Spaceport America for flight test and commercial operation.

“Our spaceship final assembly factory is key to accelerating the production of our Delta fleet, enabling a rapid increase in flight capacity that will drive our revenue growth,” Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier says. “We’re thrilled to expand into the greater Phoenix area which is home to aerospace talent — and we look forward to growing our team and fleet at our new facility.”

The facility is already under construction and is expected to be fully operational by late 2023. Final assembly manufacturing processes at the facility will be underpinned by a digital twin architecture which enables seamless integration between the company and suppliers, enabling real-time collaboration, strong governance and an increase in production efficiency and reliability.

According to Swami Iyer, Virgin Galactic’s president of Aerospace System, Arizona is a growing innovation hub, geographically situated between the company’s existing operations in Southern California and New Mexico. “This will allow us to accelerate progress from conceptual design to production to final assembly at scale as we capitalize on the many advantages Mesa and the greater Phoenix area offer,” Iyer concludes.