Week in Space Data, every Friday.
The two pioneers of commercial suborbital space tourism: comparing vehicle design, altitude achieved, tickets sold, operational histories, and the road ahead.
| Metric | Virgin Galactic | Blue Origin (New Shepard) |
|---|---|---|
| Founded | 2004 | 2000 |
| Founder | Richard Branson (Virgin Group) | Jeff Bezos |
| Headquarters | Tustin, CA (spaceline operates from Spaceport America, NM) | Kent, WA |
| Vehicle | VSS Unity (SpaceShipTwo), carried aloft by the VMS Eve aircraft; Delta-class spaceships in assembly | New Shepard capsule + booster |
| Vehicle Type | Air-launched rocket plane (hybrid rocket motor) | Vertically launched booster with a separate crew capsule |
| Peak Altitude (commercial flights) | About 87 to 88 km (Galactic 01 to 07) | About 105 to 107 km (crewed flights) |
| Crewed Flights Completed | 7 commercial spaceflights (Galactic 01 to 07, Jun 2023 to Jun 2024) | 17 crewed flights (NS-16, Jul 2021, to NS-38, Jan 2026) |
| People Per Flight | Unity: 2 pilots plus up to 4 in the cabin; Delta: 6 passenger seats | Up to 6 passengers |
| Ticket Price | $750,000 per seat for a 50-seat tranche opened Apr 2026, oversubscribed and closed by Aug 2026 (base price $450,000 from Aug 2021, $600,000 from 2023) | No flights on sale: New Shepard paused since Jan 2026 |
| Operational Status (Oct 2026) | Not flying passengers: final Unity commercial flight was Galactic 07 (Jun 2024); Delta flight tests expected from Oct 2026, commercial service from Feb 2027 | Paused: Blue Origin announced on Jan 30, 2026 a pause of at least two years to focus on lunar work (last flight NS-38, Jan 22, 2026) |
| New Shepard Anomaly | N/A | Uncrewed NS-23 booster failure, Sep 12, 2022 (escape system performed as designed); uncrewed return Dec 2023, crewed flights again from May 2024 |
| Publicly Traded | Yes (SPCE, NYSE) | No (private) |
| Next Vehicle | Delta-class spaceships (in assembly) | New Glenn (orbital): separate program |
Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin take different engineering approaches to suborbital flight. Virgin Galactic's carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, carries the spaceship to about 45,000 feet and releases it, and the spaceship then fires its hybrid rocket motor. Blue Origin's New Shepard is a vertically launched booster carrying a separate crew capsule. New Shepard's crewed flights peaked at about 105 to 107 km, above the 100 km Kármán line; VSS Unity's commercial flights peaked at about 87 to 88 km, above the FAA's former 50-statute-mile astronaut-wings threshold but below 100 km.
Virgin Galactic flew seven commercial spaceflights with VSS Unity between June 2023 and June 2024 (Galactic 01 to 07), then paused Unity flights to focus on its Delta-class spaceships, which it expects to begin flight tests in October 2026 and commercial service in February 2027. New Shepard flew 17 crewed flights between July 2021 and January 2026; after an uncrewed booster failure in September 2022 it returned to flight uncrewed in December 2023 and with crew in May 2024, and Blue Origin paused the program in January 2026 for at least two years.
Track both companies on SpaceNexus
Blue Origin. New Shepard's crewed flights peaked at about 105 to 107 km, above the 100 km Kármán line; Virgin Galactic's VSS Unity peaked at about 87 to 88 km on its commercial flights, above the 50-statute-mile (about 80 km) threshold the FAA used for its astronaut wings but below the Kármán line.
Virgin Galactic opened a tranche of 50 seats at $750,000 each in April 2026 and had closed it, oversubscribed, by August 2026; its base price had been $450,000 from August 2021 and $600,000 from 2023. Blue Origin is not flying New Shepard during its pause. Our space-tourism guide keeps the current figures.
Not with passengers. Its last commercial flight was Galactic 07 in June 2024, the final commercial flight of VSS Unity. The company is assembling its Delta-class spaceships and expects flight tests to begin in October 2026 and commercial service in February 2027.
Not at the moment. Blue Origin announced on January 30, 2026 that it would pause New Shepard for at least two years and shift resources to its lunar work, after NS-38 flew six customers on January 22. New Shepard flew 38 times, 17 of them crewed. Its one failure, an uncrewed flight in September 2022, saw the booster fail while the capsule's escape system performed as designed.
Virgin Galactic is public as SPCE on the NYSE. Blue Origin is private and owned by Jeff Bezos. Nothing on SpaceNexus is investment advice.