Virgin Galactic flies its new spaceship Apeiron to Spaceport America ahead of flight tests

Virgin Galactic on Wednesday 28 October named the first spaceship of its new Delta-class fleet Apeiron and flew it from the company’s factory in Mesa, Arizona, to Spaceport America in New Mexico, its base of operations.

The spaceship was revealed in its finished livery at the Mesa factory earlier in the day. It then took off from Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport at 5:29pm GMT, attached beneath Eve, the company’s carrier aircraft, and landed at Spaceport America at 6:59pm GMT, Virgin Galactic said. Pilots Michael Masucci and Dan Alix flew Eve, with flight test engineer Tori Crichton on board.

The company said the name, ancient Greek for “boundless”, was chosen in a public vote with participants from more than 80 countries.

At Spaceport America, engineers plan to finish integrating and validating Apeiron’s avionics software and prepare for flight tests. Virgin Galactic said it expects to start flying paying customers on Apeiron in early in the second quarter of 2027, once the test programme is complete, and a second spaceship, now being assembled, in late in the second quarter or early in the third quarter of 2027. The company says each Delta-class ship is designed to fly twice a week and last more than 500 missions.

“This morning, we gave Apeiron a name. This afternoon, Apeiron came home,” chief executive Michael Colglazier said.

Virgin Galactic’s most recent spaceflight was in June 2024, the final flight of its previous spaceship, VSS Unity.