Virgin Galactic is expected to launch its space tourism services early next year.

Late Wednesday, Virgin Galactic Holdings provided another update without mentioning another delay.

The shares of Virgin Galactic jumped over 10% at the open on Thursday. This is because investors were relieved that the company is still on course to launch commercial services at the beginning of next year.

Houston, what’s happening?

The last year has been turbulent for Virgin Galactic. Due to a series of setbacks that have delayed regularly scheduled services, the company’s shares have declined more than 80% since July 2021.

As rivals like Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin have launched successful flights, it is unclear how much demand there will be for Virgin Galactic once it launches.

Virgin Galactic announced on Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences to build two brand-new mother ships. A huge plane lifts the spacecraft off the ground and launches it into space.

Do we get our space suits out?

Virgin Galactic expects to begin commercial service in the first quarter of 2023, which will likely attract investors’ attention along with the mother ship order.

Since Virgin Galactic pushed back its schedule just a few months ago due to supply chain and manufacturing delays, it suggests that things have been going better.

Virgin Galactic still has a lot to prove, and space stocks are by nature speculative and risky. It is hard to launch people into space, it is even harder to launch them on a regular schedule, and it may still prove challenging to do so profitably.