Why Virgin Galactic Stock Rocketed Almost 50% in June
Interest in the space tourism industry soared in June. Investors took notice early in the month when Jeff Bezos, founder of the privately held Blue Origin space company, announced he would join his company's first passenger mission into space in late July. That helped boost shares of fellow space tourism company Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE). But it was additional news directly from Virgin Galactic that helped drive more-significant gains later in the month. Shares ended the month up 47.3%, according to data provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Virgin Galactic has been operating its test flights under license from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). But that license did not include passenger flights until now. On June 25, the FAA gave approval for a full commercial license to operate its spacecraft with passengers. That followed a successful May test flight, after which the company's full analysis confirmed all the flight objectives were achieved.
View from Virgin Galactic test flight. Image source: Virgin Galactic.
Source Fool.com
