The last, best hope for space tourism just rolled onto a runway in Arizona

“We’re proud that the lead ship in Virgin Galactic’s Spaceship fleet will carry a name chosen by the people who share our excitement for what comes next,” said Michael Colglazier, chief executive officer of Virgin Galactic.

But more significantly, the company said Apeiron would be moved from its Spaceship Factory in Mesa, Arizona, to Spaceport America in New Mexico later on Wednesday.

Apeiron won’t be making a free flight anytime soon. After being carried to New Mexico by the VMS Eve, aircraft engineers and technicians there will complete work on the vehicle’s avionics equipment and flight software. Following additional ground tests, Apeiron will be mated again to Eve for captive carry tests, followed by a drop test and ultimately a powered test flight above 80 km.

Is this the future of space tourism?

Presently, the company is saying it now expects Apeiron’s first commercial spaceflight to take place “early” in the second quarter of 2027. As with every other projected date in aerospace, this should be taken with a grain of salt. But it seems plausible that Apeiron may begin flying paying customers on suborbital space tourism missions over the next 12 to 18 months.

There is considerable skepticism about the commercial viability of Virgin Galactic’s space tourism ambitions. Success will require its vehicles to fly nearly flawlessly and with unprecedented durability to bring hundreds of people to space each year briefly. As this reality has dawned on investors, the markets have not been kind to the company in recent years. In 2021, at the height of space tourism euphoria, the company’s stock briefly reached a stratospheric valuation of $1,118 a share. More recently it has been trading in the vicinity $2.50 a share.

Whatever you might think of Virgin Galactic, however, it seems clear that any hopes of expanding the aperture of space tourism in the next decade will be flying beneath its wings.