The daily business briefing: July 12, 2021

Virgin Galactic shares jump after Branson's flight, Pfizer to make the case for booster, and more

Virgin Galactic space plane
(Image credit: PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP via Getty Images)

1. Branson's trip to space boosts Virgin Galactic shares

Billionaire Richard Branson and five crew members successfully flew to the edge of space Sunday on board a spacecraft made by Branson's own private space company, Virgin Galactic. The plane reached "the threshold of space," climbing more than 53 miles above Earth during the hour-long journey. The flight came nine days before Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is set to make his own trip to space on board a craft designed by his firm Blue Origin, and marks a major stride toward these companies' ultimate goal of turning private space flight into a successful business venture; fares for a flight on Virgin's space plane will cost more than $250,000 per seat, and Virgin has more than 600 confirmed customers for flights set to begin in 2022. Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. surged by more than 20 percent in pre-market trading Monday after Branson's flight. "Welcome to the dawn of a new space age," Branson said.

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Bonnie Kristian

Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.