Virgin Galactic has unveiled its new spaceship, Apeiron, a name chosen by popular vote from a public poll. Apeiron is the first vehicle in the company's new Delta-class fleet, yet it is not scheduled to launch for nearly another year. The reveal gives the public its first look at the craft that is meant to carry the company's commercial customers to space.
The company recently announced another delay to its launch timeline. The lead Delta-class spaceship's first commercial spaceflight is now expected in early the second quarter of 2027. The second spaceship is expected to begin commercial spaceflight operations in late the second quarter or early the third quarter of 2027. Taken together, the two dates show that the company is staggering its entry into commercial service rather than launching both vehicles at once.
Virgin Galactic attributes the revised schedule to the need for additional time to complete avionics software integration and validation. The company describes that work as relying on an exhaustive testing process, and it has chosen to allow more time for that process before passengers fly. Software validation of this kind governs how the vehicle's onboard systems communicate and respond during flight, which makes it one of the final steps before a crewed launch.
The delay is the latest in a series of timing changes for the Delta-class program, and it shows how long the testing and certification steps can take for a crewed suborbital spacecraft, even after the hardware has been revealed. Because the first commercial flight is now pushed into 2027, the company's ability to generate revenue from the new vehicles will also be postponed, a consequence that follows directly from the revised timeline.
The choice of a public vote for the name gave the wider public a role in naming a vehicle that will fly customers, a step that puts the Apeiron reveal in front of a broad audience at a moment when its launch date has moved back. The company has not, in the supplied material, set out any further details on pricing, crew or mission profiles for the first flights.
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