SPCE US Equity☆

spce-20201231

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

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FORM 10-K

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2020

or

☐TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from _____ to _____

Commission File Number: 001-38202

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Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

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(575) 424-2100

(Registrant's telephone number, including area code)

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Securities registered pursuant to section 12(b) of the Act:

Title of each class Trading Symbol(s) Name of each exchange on which registered

Common stock, $0.0001 par value per share SPCE New York Stock Exchange

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

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Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of "large accelerated filer," "accelerated filer," "smaller reporting company" and "emerging growth company" in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

Large accelerated filer ☒ Accelerated filer ☐

Non-accelerated filer ☐ Smaller reporting company ☐

Emerging growth company ☐

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☒

As of June 30, 2020, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, the aggregate market value of the voting and non-voting common stock held by non-affiliates, computed by reference to the closing sales price of $16.34 reported on The New York Stock Exchange, was approximately $1.5 billion.

As of February 22, 2021, there were 236,944,263 shares of the registrant's common stock, $0.0001 par value per share, issued and outstanding.

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DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

None.

Table of Contents

VIRGIN GALACTIC HOLDINGS, INC.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page No.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements 2

Risk Factor Summary 3

Part I

Item 1. Business 4

Item 1A. Risk Factors 23

Item 2. Properties 45

Item 3. Legal Proceedings 45

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures 45

Part II

Item 6. Selected Financial Data 46

Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk 58

Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data 58

Item 9A. Controls and Procedures 59

Item 9B. Other Information 60

Part III

Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance 61

Item 11. Executive Compensation 64

Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services 71

Part IV

Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules 73

Signatures 77

Index to Consolidated Financial Statements and Supplementary Data F-1

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Each of the terms the “Company,” “Virgin Galactic,” “we,” “our,” “us,” and similar terms used herein refer collectively to Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and its consolidated subsidiaries, unless otherwise stated.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This Annual Report on Form 10-K contains forward-looking statements (including within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995) concerning us and other matters. These statements may discuss goals, intentions and expectations as to future plans, trends, events, results of operations or financial condition, or otherwise, based on current beliefs of management, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management. Forward-looking statements may be accompanied by words such as “achieve,” “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “can,” “continue,” “could,” “drive,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “future,” “grow,” “improve,” “increase,” “intend,” “may,” “outlook,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “target,” “will,” “would,” or similar words, phrases, or expressions. These forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties, many of which are outside our control. Therefore, you should not place undue reliance on such statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, the following:

•our ability to achieve or maintain profitability;

•our ability to effectively market and sell human spaceflights;

•the development of the markets for commercial human spaceflight and commercial research and development payloads;

•any delay in completing the flight test program and final development of our spaceflight system, which is comprised of our SpaceShipTwo Spaceship, VSS Unity, and our mothership carrier aircraft, VMS Eve;

•our ability to operate our spaceflight system after commercial launch;

•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on us, our operations, our future financial or operational results, and our access to additional financing;

•the safety of our spaceflight systems;

•our ability to convert our backlog or inbound inquiries into revenue;

•our ability to conduct test flights;

•our anticipated full passenger capacity;

•delay in developing or the manufacture of spaceflight systems;

•our ability to supply our technology to additional market opportunities;

•our expected capital requirements and the availability of additional financing;

•our ability to attract or retain highly qualified personnel, including in accounting and finance roles;

•extensive and evolving government regulation that impact the way we operate;

•risks associated with international expansion; and

•our ability to continue to use, maintain, enforce, protect and defend our owned and licensed intellectual property, including the Virgin brand.

Additional factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from current expectations include, among other things, those set forth in Part I, Item 1A. “Risk Factors” and Part II, Item 7. “Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations below” and for the reasons described elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, our information may be incomplete or limited, and we cannot guarantee future results. Except as required by law, we assume no obligation to update or revise these forward-looking statements for any reason, even if new information becomes available in the future.

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Risk Factor Summary

Your investment in our common stock will involve certain risks. Set forth below is only a summary of the principal risks associated with an investment in our common stock. You should consider carefully the following discussion of risks, as well as the discussion of risks included in this annual report, before you decide that an investment in the notes is appropriate for you.

•We have incurred significant losses since inception, we expect to incur losses in the future and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.

•The success of our business will be highly dependent on our ability to effectively market and sell human spaceflights.

•A pandemic outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has disrupted and may continue to adversely affect our business operations and our financial results.

•The market for commercial human spaceflight has not been established with precision. It is still emerging and may not achieve the growth potential we expect or may grow more slowly than expected.

•We anticipate commencing commercial spaceflight operations with a single spaceflight system, which has yet to complete flight testing. Any delay in completing the flight test program and the final development of our existing spaceflight system would adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•Any inability to operate our spaceflight system after commercial launch at our anticipated flight rate could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

•Our ability to grow our business depends on the successful development of our spaceflight systems and related technology, which is subject to many uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control.

•Unsatisfactory safety performance of our spaceflight systems could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

•Our investments in developing new offerings and technologies and exploring the application of our existing proprietary technologies for other uses and those offerings, technologies or opportunities may never materialize.

•The “Virgin” brand is not under our control, and negative publicity related to the Virgin brand name could materially adversely affect our business.

•If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary intellectual property rights, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, generate reduced revenue and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.

•Virgin Investments Limited and the other stockholders that are party to the Stockholders’ Agreement have the ability to control the direction of our business, and the concentrated ownership of our common stock will prevent you and other stockholders from influencing significant decisions.

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Part I

Item 1. Business

Corporate History and Background

We were initially formed on May 5, 2017, as a Cayman Islands exempted company and formed for the purpose of effecting a merger, share exchange, asset acquisition, share purchase, reorganization or similar business combination with one or more businesses. From the time of our formation to the time of the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination (defined below), our name was “Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp.”

On July 9, 2019, we entered into an Agreement and Plan of Merger (as amended on October 2, 2019, the “Merger Agreement”) with Vieco USA, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Vieco US”), Vieco 10 Limited, a company limited by shares under the laws of the British Virgin Islands (“V10”), Foundation Sub 1, Inc., a Delaware corporation and our direct wholly-owned subsidiary (“Merger Sub A”), Foundation Sub 2, Inc., a Delaware corporation, and our direct wholly-owned subsidiary (“Merger Sub B”), Foundation Sub LLC, a Delaware limited liability company, and our direct wholly-owned subsidiary (“Merger Sub LLC” and, collectively with Merger Sub A and Merger Sub B, the “Merger Subs”), TSC Vehicle Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation and an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Vieco US (“Company A”), Virgin Galactic Vehicle Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation and an indirect wholly-owned subsidiary of Vieco US (“Company B”), and VGH, LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and a direct wholly-owned subsidiary of Vieco US (“Company LLC” and, collectively with Company A and Company B, the “VG Companies”).

On October 25, 2019, as contemplated by the Merger Agreement and following approval by our shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting held October 23, 2019:

•we filed a notice of deregistration with the Cayman Islands Registrar of Companies, together with the necessary accompanying documents, and filed a certificate of incorporation and a certificate of corporate domestication with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware, under which we were domesticated and continue as a Delaware corporation, changing our name from “Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp.” to “Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc.” (the “Domestication”); and

•all outstanding shares of common stock or limited liability company interests, as applicable, of the VG Companies were cancelled in exchange for the right to receive an aggregate of 130,000,000 shares of our common stock (at a deemed value of $10.00 per share) for an aggregate merger consideration of $1.3 billion (the “Aggregate Merger Consideration”) and (x) Merger Sub A merged with and into Company A, the separate corporate existence of Merger Sub A ceasing and Company A being the surviving corporation and our wholly-owned subsidiary, (y) Merger Sub B, merged with and into Company B, the separate corporate existence of Merger Sub B ceasing and Company B being the surviving corporation and our wholly-owned subsidiary and (z) Merger Sub LLC merged with and into Company LLC, the separate company existence of Merger Sub LLC ceasing and Company LLC being the surviving company and our wholly-owned subsidiary (collectively referred to as the “Mergers” and together with the Domestication, the “Virgin Galactic Business Combination”).

In connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination:

•each of our then-outstanding Class A ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, was converted, on a one-for-one basis, into a share of common stock, par value $0.0001 per share;

•each of our then-outstanding Class B ordinary shares, par value $0.0001 per share, was converted, on a one-for-one basis, into a share of common stock; provided, however, that with respect to our Class B ordinary shares held by SCH Sponsor Corp. (the “Sponsor”), the Sponsor instead received upon the conversion of the Class B ordinary shares held by it 15,750,000 shares of common stock;

•each then-outstanding warrant to purchase one Class A ordinary share converted into a warrant to purchase one share of common stock; and

•each then-outstanding unit, which consisted of one Class A ordinary share and one-third of one warrant to purchase Class A ordinary shares, converted into a unit consisting of one share of our common stock and one-third of one warrant to purchase one share of common stock.

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The Virgin Galactic Business Combination was accounted for as a reverse recapitalization in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States. Under this method of accounting, Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. was treated as the “acquired” company for financial reporting purposes. This determination was primarily based on the pre-Virgin Galactic Business Combination shareholders of the VG Companies having a relative majority of the voting power of the combined entity, the operations of the VG Companies prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination comprising the only ongoing operations of the combined entity, and senior management of the VG Companies comprising the majority of the senior management of the combined entity. Accordingly, for accounting purposes, the financial statements of the combined entity, including those included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K represent a continuation of the financial statements of the VG Companies with the acquisition being treated as the equivalent of the VG Companies issuing stock for the net assets of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp., accompanied by a recapitalization. The net assets of Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp. are stated at historical cost, with no goodwill or other intangible assets recorded.

Overview

We are a vertically-integrated aerospace company pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers, as well as a manufacturer of advanced air and space vehicles. Using our proprietary and reusable technologies and supported by a distinctive, Virgin-branded customer experience, we are developing a spaceflight system designed to offer customers, whom we refer to as "future astronauts," a unique, multi-day, transformative experience. This culminates in a spaceflight that includes views of Earth from space and several minutes of weightlessness that will launch from Spaceport America, New Mexico. We believe that one of the most exciting and significant opportunities of our time lies in the commercial exploration of space and the development of technology that will change the way we travel across the globe in the future. Together we are opening access to space to change the world for good.

Over the past decade, several trends have converged to invigorate the commercial space industry. Rapidly advancing technologies, decreasing costs, open innovation models with improved access to technology, and greater availability of capital have driven significant growth in the commercial space market. We believe the exploration of space and the cultivation and monetization of space-related capabilities offer immense potential to create economic value and future growth. Further, we believe we are at the center of these industry trends and well-positioned to capitalize on them by bringing human spaceflight to a broad global population that dreams of traveling to space.

The market for commercial human spaceflight for private individuals is new and untapped. As of December 31, 2020, only 581 humans have ever traveled above the Earth’s atmosphere into space to become officially recognized as astronauts, cosmonauts or taikonauts. Overwhelmingly, these men and women have been government employees handpicked by government space agencies such as the National Aeronautics Space Administration ("NASA") and trained over many years at significant expense. Private commercial space travel has been limited to a select group of individuals who were able to reach space, generally only at great personal expenses and risk. We are planning to change that. We believe a significant market opportunity exists to provide high net worth individuals with a dynamic spaceflight experience at a fraction of the personal expenses and risk incurred by other private individuals to date. We believe this market opportunity is supported by approximately 600 reservations and over $80.0 million of deposits we had booked as of December 31, 2020. Additionally, in February 2020, we launched our One Small Step campaign, which allowed interested individuals to place a $1,000 refundable registration deposit towards the cost of a future ticket once we reopen ticket sales. On December 31, 2020, we closed the One Small Step campaign to new entrants, having received approximately 1,000 One Small Step deposits through that date.

We continue to progress through our test program schedule and our fleet expansion efforts during 2020, despite challenges and delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and actions taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We currently expect to advance to the next phase of our test flight program with our first rocket-powered spaceflight from Spaceport America, and our third spaceflight to date, in the spring of 2021. In addition to our internal test flight objectives, this flight will also capture data that will be submitted to the FAA, and upon their review and successful determination, will approve us to fly paying customers under our existing commercial spaceflight license. Following a satisfactory review of the flight performance by our team, we would then plan to conduct a second powered spaceflight with a crew of two test pilots in the cockpit and four mission specialists in the cabin. Presuming the results of these previous flights are as expected, we would plan to fly our founder, Sir Richard Branson, on the third spaceflight from Spaceport America, occurring in the summer of 2021.

Over the last 15 years, we have developed an extensive portfolio of proprietary technologies embodied in the highly specialized assets that we have developed or leased to enable commercial spaceflight and address these industry trends. These assets include:

•Our carrier aircraft, the mothership. The mothership is a twin-fuselage, custom-built aircraft designed to carry our spaceships up to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet, where the spaceship is released for its flight into space. Our

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carrier aircraft is designed to launch thousands of spaceship flights over its lifetime. This reusable launch platform design provides a flight experience and economics similar to commercial airplanes and may offer a considerable economic advantage over other potential launch alternatives. Additionally, our carrier aircraft is designed to have a rapid turnaround time to enable it to provide frequent spaceflight launch services for multiple spaceships.

•Our spaceship. Our spaceship platform is a reusable spaceship with the capacity to carry two pilots and up to six future astronauts into space before returning them safely to the Earth’s surface. The SpaceShip is a rocket-powered winged vehicle designed to achieve a maximum speed of over Mach 3 and has a flight duration, measured from the takeoff of our carrier aircraft to the landing of SpaceShip, of up to approximately 90 minutes. The SpaceShip cabin has been designed to optimize the future astronaut’s safety, experience and comfort. For example, the sides and ceiling of the spaceship’s cabin are lined by more than a dozen windows, offering future astronauts the ability to view the blackness of space as well as stunning views of the Earth below. With the exception of the rocket motor’s fuel and oxidizer, which must be replenished after each flight, SpaceShip is designed as a wholly reusable spaceship.

•Our hybrid rocket motor. Our spaceships are powered by a hybrid rocket propulsion system that propels them on a trajectory into space. The term “hybrid” rocket refers to the fact that the rocket uses a solid fuel grain cartridge and a liquid oxidizer. The fuel cartridge is consumed over the course of a flight and replaced in between flights. Our RocketMotor has been designed to provide performance capabilities necessary for spaceflight with a focus on safety, reliability and economy. Its design incorporates comprehensive critical safety features, including the ability to be safely shut down at any time, and its limited number of moving parts increases reliability and robustness for human spaceflight. Furthermore, the motor is made from a benign substance that needs no special or hazardous storage.

•Spaceport America. The future astronaut flight preparation and experience will take place at our operational headquarters at Spaceport America. Spaceport America is the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world and serves as the home of our terminal hangar building, officially designated the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.” Spaceport America is located in New Mexico on 27 square miles of desert landscape, with access to 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace running from the ground to space. The restricted airspace will facilitate frequent and consistent flight scheduling by preventing general commercial air traffic from entering the area. Additionally, the desert climate and its relatively predictable weather provide favorable launch conditions year-round. Our license from the FAA includes Spaceport America as a location from which we can launch and land our spaceflight system on a routine basis.

We have designed our spaceflight system with a fundamental focus on safety. Important elements of our safety design include horizontal takeoff and landing, highly reliable and rigorously tested jet engines on our carrier aircraft, two pilots in our carrier aircraft and the spaceship to provide important redundancy, a proprietary feathering system that allows the spaceship to properly align for re-entry with limited pilot input, extensive screening and training of our pilots, and the ability to safely abort at any time during the mission. In 2016, the FAA granted us our commercial space launch license with a limited number of verification and validation steps that must be completed before the FAA will clear us to include future astronauts on our spaceflights. Specifically, we are required by the FAA to submit final integrated vehicle performance results conducted in an operational flight environment, including the final configuration of critical systems and aspects of the environmental control system and human factors performance. We expect to be able to submit these results to the FAA during the spring of 2021.

Our goal is to offer our future astronauts an unmatched, safe, and affordable journey to space without the need for any special prior experience or significant prior training and preparation. We have worked diligently for over a decade to plan every aspect of the future astronaut’s journey to become an astronaut, drawing on a world-class team with extensive experience with human spaceflight, high-end customer experiences, and reliable transportation system operations and safety. Each future astronaut will spend several days at Spaceport America, including days devoted to pre-flight training and the spaceflight itself occurring at the end of the training period. In space, they will be able to exit their seats and experience weightlessness, floating about the cabin and positioning themselves at one of the many windows around the cabin sides and top. After enjoying several minutes of weightlessness, our astronauts will maneuver back to their seats to prepare for re-entry and the journey back into the Earth’s atmosphere. Upon landing, astronauts will disembark and join family and friends to celebrate their achievements and receive their astronaut wings.

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We have historically sold spaceflight tickets at a price point of up to $250,000 per ticket. Given the demand for human spaceflight experiences and the limited available capacity, however, we expect the price of our tickets to increase for a period of time. As of December 31, 2020, we had reservations for approximately 600 spaceflight tickets and approximately $80.0 million in deposits. We believe these sales are largely attributable to the strength and prominence of the Virgin Galactic brand, which has driven many of our future astronauts directly to us with inbound requests. As we transition to full commercialization, we intend to take a more active role in marketing and selling our spaceflight experience. Given that sales of spaceflights are consultative and generally require a one-on-one sales approach, we intend to go to market using our direct sales organization and may expand the reach of that organization using a global network of high-end travel professionals that we refer to as "Accredited Space Agents".

Our Chief Executive Officer spent more than 30 years working at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as its President and Managing Director, Disney Parks International, and leads a senior management team with extensive experience in the aerospace industry, including the former Chief of Staff for NASA as well as NASA’s former space shuttle launch integration manager, and former President of GKN Advanced Defense Systems. Our team of pilots is similarly experienced, with 269 years of collective flight experience, and includes former test pilots for NASA, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the U.S. Air Force, the Italian Air Force, and the U.S. Marine Corps. Our commercial team is managed and supported by individuals with significant experience and success in building and growing a commercial spaceflight brand, selling spaceflight reservations and managing the pre-flight future astronaut community.

Commercial Space Industry

The commercial exploration of space represents one of the most exciting and important technological initiatives of our time. For the last six decades, crewed spaceflight missions commanded by the national space agencies of the United States, Russia and China have captured and sustained the attention of the world, inspiring countless entrepreneurs, scientists, inventors, ordinary citizens and new industries. Despite the importance of these missions and their cultural, scientific, economic and geopolitical influence, as of December 31, 2020, only 581 humans have ever traveled above the Earth’s atmosphere into space to become officially recognized astronauts, cosmonauts or taikonauts. Overwhelmingly, these men and women have been government employees handpicked by government space agencies such as NASA and trained over many years at significant expense. While these highly capable government astronauts have inspired millions, individuals in the private sector have had extremely limited opportunity to fly into space, regardless of their wealth or ambitions. We are planning to change that.

Over the past decade, several trends have converged to invigorate the commercial space industry. Rapidly advancing technologies, decreasing costs, open innovation models with improved access to technology and greater availability of capital have driven explosive growth in the commercial space market. The growth in private investment in the commercial space industry has led to a wave of new companies reinventing parts of the traditional space industry, including human spaceflight, satellites, payload delivery and methods of launch, in addition to unlocking entirely new potential market segments. Government agencies have taken note of the massive potential and growing import of space and are increasingly relying on the commercial space industry to spur innovation and advance national space objectives. In the United States, this has been evidenced by notable policy initiatives and by commercial contractors’ growing share of space activity.

As a result of these trends, we believe the exploration of space and the cultivation and monetization of space-related capabilities offers immense potential to create economic value and future growth. Further, we believe we are at the center of these industry trends and well-positioned to capitalize on them by bringing human spaceflight to a broader global population that dreams of traveling to space. We are initially focused on human spaceflight for recreation and research, but we believe our differentiated technology and unique capabilities can be leveraged to address numerous commercial and government opportunities in the commercial space industry.

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We have developed extensive vertically integrated aerospace development capabilities for developing, manufacturing and testing aircraft and related propulsion systems. These capabilities encompass preliminary systems and vehicle design and analysis, detail design, manufacturing, ground testing, flight testing and post-delivery support and maintenance. We believe our unique approach and rapid prototyping capabilities enable innovative ideas to be designed quickly and built and tested with process and rigor. In addition, we have expertise in configuration management and developing documentation needed to transition our technologies and systems to commercial applications. Further, we have developed a significant amount of know-how, expertise and capability that we believe we can leverage to capture growing demand for innovative, agile and low-cost development projects for third parties, including contractors, government agencies and commercial service providers. We are exploring strategic relationships to identify new applications for our technologies and to develop advanced aerospace technologies for commercial and transportation applications that we believe will accelerate progress within relevant industries and enhance our growth.

Human Spaceflight

The market for commercial human spaceflight for private individuals is new and virtually untapped. To date, private commercial space travel has been limited to a select group of individuals who were able to reach space only at great personal expense and risk. In effect, these individuals became temporary members of the Russian Space Agency, were required to learn the Russian language and trained for months prior to spaceflight. In 2001, Dennis Tito was the first private individual to purchase a ticket for space travel, paying an estimated $20.0 million for a ride to the International Space Station (the “ISS") on a Russian Soyuz rocket. Since then, six individuals have purchased tickets and flown successful orbital missions that have included time on the ISS, and current prices for spaceflights to the ISS approximately range between $50.0 million and $75.0 million per trip. One individual, Charles Simonyi, flew twice.

Historically, the privatization of human spaceflight has been limited primarily by cost and availability to private individuals. In the past, the technologies necessary to journey to space have been owned and controlled strictly by government space agencies. Government agencies have recently demonstrated interest in opening up access to the private sector for human spaceflight. Because of the high cost of development, historically, there has been limited innovation to foster the commercial viability of human spaceflight. For example, most spacecraft were developed as single-use vehicles; and while the Space Shuttle was built as a reusable vehicle, it required significant recovery and refurbishment between flights.

The interconnected dynamics of national security concerns, government funding, a lack of competing technologies and economies of scale, as well as the infrequency of flights, have all contributed to sustained high costs of human spaceflight. In addition to the cost, privatization has also been limited by concerns surrounding the ability to safely transport untrained general members of the public into space.

While these obstacles have significantly limited the adoption of human space travel, we believe the few private individuals who have already flown at significant personal cost provide important insight into the potential demand for private space travel, particularly if these obstacles can be addressed. To evaluate the potential market opportunity, we have performed a high-level analysis based on publicly available information to estimate the net worth of our existing reservation holders. Based on that analysis, we estimate that over 90% of our existing reservation holders have a net worth of over $1.0 million, and approximately 70% have a net worth of less than $20.0 million. As a result, we expect our commercial human spaceflight offering will receive interest broadly across the spectrum of high net worth individuals. However, in the near term, we expect the majority of our future astronauts will consist of individuals with a net worth of $10.0 million or more.

We believe a significant market opportunity exists for a company that can provide high net worth individuals with the opportunity to enjoy a spaceflight experience in comfort and safety. We believe this is supported by approximately 600 reservations, backed by more than $80.0 million of deposits that we had received as of December 31, 2020. This customer backlog represents approximately $120.0 million in expected future revenue upon payment of the full ticket price for our space flights. In February 2020, we launched our One Small Step campaign which allows interested individuals to place a $1,000 refundable registration deposit towards the cost of a future ticket once we reopen ticket sales and, as of December 31, 2020, we had received approximately 1,000 One Small Step deposits from 66 countries. We retired the "One Small Step" program on December 31, 2020, but plan on reopening ticket sales following Sir Richard Branson's test flight expected in 2021.

Our Strategy

Using our proprietary and reusable flight system and supported by a distinctive, Virgin-branded customer experience, we seek to provide affordable, safe, reliable and regular transportation to space. To accomplish this, we intend to:

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•Launch our commercial program for human spaceflight. In December 2018, we flew our first spaceflight using our current SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity. This marked the first-ever flight of a vehicle designed for commercial service to take humans into space and was the first crewed space launch from U.S. soil since 2011. In February 2019, we flew VSS Unity to space for a second time and, in addition to the two pilots, carried a crew member in the cabin. The crew member was able to unbuckle her seatbelt and float around the cabin in weightlessness – another first for a commercial space vehicle. All five crew members flown across these two flights were thereafter awarded official U.S. government commercial astronaut wings in recognition of having traveled more than 50 miles above sea level. We are now in the final phases of readying our commercial spaceflight program. As part of this preparatory work, we have transitioned our operational headquarters to our purpose-built facility at Spaceport America in New Mexico and completing the final work on VSS Unity for commercial service, including the installation of the cabin interior. The interior furnishings and fixtures have been installed at Spaceport America, along with finalizing everything needed to prepare our first future astronauts for flight. We expect to conclude the final portion of the flight test program from Spaceport America and expect successful completion of those tests.

•Expand the fleet to increase our flight rate. We will commence commercial operations to our SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, and our mothership carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, which together comprise our spaceflight system. We believe these craft will be sufficient to meet our initial operating plan. We have two additional spaceship vehicles, which we refer to as our SpaceShip III vehicles, under construction, as well as additional motherships undergoing design engineering. We plan to expand the fleet of SpaceShip vehicles, which will allow us to increase our annual flight rate. Beyond that, we plan to identify opportunities to expand to additional spaceports.

•Lower operating costs. We are focused on developing and implementing manufacturing and operating efficiencies in an effort to decrease the manufacturing cost per spaceship, mothership and propulsion systems. Additionally, we expect that, as we commence commercial operations, our staff will become more efficient in various aspects of operations and maintenance to reduce associated operating costs.

•Leverage our proprietary technology and deep manufacturing experience to augment our product and service offerings and expand into adjacent and international markets. We have developed an extensive set of vertically integrated aerospace development capabilities and technologies. While our primary focus for the foreseeable future will be on commercializing human space flight, we intend to explore the application of our proprietary technologies and our capabilities in areas such as design, engineering, composites manufacturing, high-speed propulsion and production for other commercial and government uses. Among other opportunities, we believe our technology could be used to develop high-speed vehicles that drastically reduce travel time for point-to-point international travel. By leveraging our technology and operations, we believe we will also have an opportunity in the future to pursue growth opportunities abroad, including by potentially opening additional spaceports or entering into other arrangements with different international government agencies. We also expect to continue and expand our government and research payload business, in addition to developing additional commercial partnerships.

Our Competitive Strengths

We are a pioneer in commercial human spaceflight with a mission to enhance our world by opening space to a broad audience and facilitating the further exploration of our universe. We believe that our collective expertise, coupled with the following strengths, will allow us to build our business and expand our market opportunity and addressable markets:

•Differentiated technology and capabilities. Over the last 15 years, we have developed reusable vehicles and capabilities that will allow us to move towards airline-like operations for spaceflight, and which were the basis for the FAA granting us our commercial space launch license in 2016. Our spaceflight system and our hybrid rocket motor together enable the following key differentiators:

◦horizontal take-off and landing using winged vehicles and traditional airplane runway infrastructure that enable a familiar airplane-like experience;

◦use of our carrier aircraft for the first stage of flight and then to air launch our spaceship, which is intended to maximize the safety and efficiency of our spaceflight system;

◦pilot-designed and pilot-flown missions to aid safety and customer confidence;

◦carbon composite construction that is light, strong and fatigue-resistant;

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◦robust, controllable spaceship hybrid rocket motor propulsion system that can be safely shut down at any time during the flight;

◦large cabin with multiple windows, allowing for an experience of weightlessness and easy access to views of Earth for all of our future astronauts; and

◦unique “wing-feathering” system, designed to enable a safe, aerodynamically controlled re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere on a repeated basis.

•Significant backlog and pent-up customer demand. While not yet in commercial service, we have already received significant interest from future astronauts and research organizations. As of December 31, 2020, we had reservations for SpaceShip flights of approximately 600 future astronauts, backed by more than $80.0 million of deposits. We have not been actively selling new reservations for spaceflights since the end of 2014, having established proof of market and to focus resources on community management and achieving commercialization. In February 2020, we launched our One Small Step campaign which allows interested individuals to place a $1,000 refundable registration deposit towards the cost of a future ticket once we reopen ticket sales. We closed the program to new entrants on December 31, 2020, and, as of that date, have received approximately 1,000 One Small Step deposits from 66 countries. We plan on reopening ticket sales following Sir Richard Branson's test flight which is expected in 2021. Additionally, as of December 31, 2020, we have flown eight payloads for space research missions and intend to pursue similar arrangements for additional research missions.

•Iconic brand associated with unique customer experiences. The Virgin brand carries an exceptional reputation worldwide for innovation, customer experience, adventure and luxury. We have been planning our customer journey for many years and have refined our plans with the help of our potential future astronauts, many of whom are highly regarded enthusiasts who are committed to optimizing their experience and our success. The customer journey starts with marketing materials, the sales process and the purchase of a reservation. It concludes with a multi-day spaceflight experience in New Mexico, which includes a personalized training and preparation program designed to optimize the flight for each individual and incorporates an activity program for friends and family. The experience culminates in an epic flight to space and a full video and photographic record of the journey. A clear customer service ethos and language runs through the entire journey and is managed by our uniquely experienced team.

•Limited competition with natural barriers to entry. Entry into the commercial human spaceflight market requires a significant financial investment as well as many years of high-risk development. We were formed in 2004 after the basic architecture of our spaceflight system had been proven in prototype form, which in itself had taken several years. In total, the development of our platform and capabilities has required more than $1 billion in total investment to date. We are aware of only one competitor with a similar investment of time and money in suborbital commercial human spaceflight, which is taking a different approach to its launch architecture.

•Highly specialized and vertically integrated design and manufacturing capabilities. We possess highly specialized and vertically integrated capabilities that enable us to manage and control almost all elements of design and manufacturing of our spaceship and our carrier aircraft. These capabilities include a unique approach to rapid prototyping that enables us to design, build and test innovative ideas quickly; a deep composite manufacturing experience with broad applications in the aerospace industry; a dedicated team and facilities that support the full development of our high-performance vehicles; and a 200,000 square foot campus in Mojave, California that houses fabrication, assembly, hangar and office space and where we perform ground and test operations.

•First purpose-built commercial spaceport. Spaceport America was designed to be both functional and beautiful and sets the stage for our future astronaut experiences. Spaceport America is located in New Mexico on 27 square miles of desert landscape, with access to 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace running from the ground to space. The restricted airspace will facilitate frequent and consistent flight scheduling and the desert climate and its relatively predictable weather provide favorable launch conditions year-round. The facilities were built with our operational requirements and our future astronauts in mind, with comprehensive consideration of its practical function, while also providing the basis for the Virgin Galactic experience.

•Experienced management team and an industry-leading flight team. Our Chief Executive Officer spent more than 30 years working at The Walt Disney Company, most recently as its President and Managing Director, Disney Parks International, and leads a senior management team with extensive experience in the aerospace industry, including the former Chief of Staff for NASA as well as NASA’s former space shuttle launch integration manager, and former President of GKN Advanced Defense Systems. Our team of pilots is similarly experienced, with 269 years of flight experience, and includes former test pilots for NASA, the Royal Air Force, the U.S. Air Force, the Italian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the U.S. Marine Corps. Our commercial team is managed and supported by

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individuals with significant experience and success in building and growing a commercial spaceflight brand, selling spaceflight reservations and managing the pre-flight future astronaut community.

Our Assets

Over the last 16 years, we have developed an extensive portfolio of proprietary technologies that are embodied in the highly specialized vehicles that we have created to enable commercial spaceflight. These technologies underpin our carrier aircraft, the mothership; our SpaceShips; our hybrid rocket motor; and our safety systems. Our future astronauts will interact with these technologies at our operational headquarters at Spaceport America, the first purpose-built commercial spaceport, and our terminal hangar building, officially designated the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space.”

Our Carrier Aircraft—The Mothership

The mothership is a twin-fuselage, custom-built aircraft designed to carry SpaceShips up to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet, where the spaceship is released for its flight into space. Using the mothership rather than a standard ground-launch rocket reduces the energy requirements for suborbital launch because our SpaceShips are not required to propel their way through the higher density atmosphere nearer to the Earth’s surface. Air-launch systems have a well-established flight heritage, having first been used in 1947 for the Bell X-1, which was the first aircraft to break the speed of sound, and later on, the X-15 suborbital spaceplane, in Northrop Grumman’s Pegasus rocket system and in earlier versions of our spaceflight system.

The mothership’s differentiating design features include its twin-boom configuration, its single-piece composite main wing spars, its reusability as the first stage in our space launch system, and its versatility as a flight trainer for our SpaceShips. The twin-boom configuration allows for a spacious central area between the two fuselages to accommodate a launch pylon to which the SpaceShip can be attached. Both cabins of the mothership are constructed on the same tooling and are identical in shape and size to the SpaceShip cabin. The commonality of cabin construction provides cost savings in production, as well as operational, maintenance and crew training advantages. The mothership’s all-composite material construction substantially reduces weight as compared to an all-metal design. The mothership is powered by four Pratt and Whitney Canada commercial turbo-fan engines. Spare parts and maintenance support are readily available for these engines, which have reliably been in service on the mothership since December 2008.

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The mothership’s pilots are all located in the right boom during all phases of ground operations and flight. At present, the left boom is empty and unpressurized; however, in the future, the left boom could be used to accommodate additional crew, research experiments or astronauts training for their flight on our SpaceShip, if permitted by relevant government agencies.

The mothership’s 140 foot main wing houses large air brakes that allow the mothership to mimic the SpaceShip’s aerodynamic characteristics in the gliding portions of the SpaceShip’s flight. This provides our pilots with a safe, cost-effective and repeatable way to train for the SpaceShip’s final approach and landing.

Our carrier aircraft is designed to launch thousands of SpaceShip flights over its lifetime. As such, our spaceflight launch platform system provides a flight experience and economics akin to commercial airplanes and offers a considerable economic advantage over other potential launch architectures. Additionally, our carrier aircraft has a rapid turnaround time, enabling it to provide frequent spaceflight launch services for multiple spaceships.

The mothership was designed with a view towards supporting our international expansion and has a range of up to 2,800 nautical miles. As a result, the mothership can transport our SpaceShips virtually anywhere in the world to establish launch capabilities.

The mothership has completed an extensive, multi-year test program that included a combination of ground and flight tests. As of December 31, 2020, it had completed a total of 289 test flights, with more than 50 of those being dual tests with SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity.

Our Spaceships

Virgin Galactic SpaceShips are reusable spaceships with the capacity to carry two pilots and up to six spaceflight participants into space before returning them safely to the Earth’s surface. The SpaceShip is a rocket-powered winged vehicle

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designed to achieve a maximum speed of over Mach 3 and has a flight duration, measured from the mothership’s takeoff to landing, of up to approximately 90 minutes.

The SpaceShip begins each mission by being carried to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet by the mothership before being released. Upon release, the pilot fires the hybrid rocket motor, which propels the SpaceShip on a near vertical trajectory into space. Once in space, after providing the future astronauts with amazing views and a weightlessness experience, a pilot uses the spaceship’s unique "wing-feathering" feature in order to prepare the vehicle for re-entry. The feathering system works like a shuttlecock in badminton, naturally orienting the SpaceShip into the desired re-entry position with minimal pilot and computer input. This re-entry position uses the entire bottom of the spaceship to create substantial drag, thereby slowing the vehicle to a safe re-entry speed and preventing unacceptable heat loads. Once the SpaceShip has descended back to an altitude of approximately 55,000 feet above sea level, the wings un-feather back to their normal position, and the SpaceShip glides back to the base for a runway landing, similar to NASA’s Space Shuttle or any other glider. The SpaceShip’s feathering system was originally developed and tested on SpaceShipTwo’s smaller predecessor, SpaceShipOne.

Our SpaceShip’s cabin has been designed to maximize customer safety and comfort. A dozen windows in the cabin line the sides and ceiling of the spaceship, offering future astronauts the ability to view the black of space as well as stunning views of the Earth below.

With the exception of the rocket motor’s fuel and oxidizer, which must be replenished after each flight, our SpaceShips are designed to be reusable. Like the mothership, our SpaceShip was constructed with all-composite material construction, providing beneficial weight and fatigue characteristics.

SpaceShipTwo, VSS Unity, is completing an extensive flight test program that began in March 2010 with the original SpaceShipTwo, VSS Enterprise, which was built by a third-party contractor. This flight program was designed to include a rigorous series of ground and flight tests. As of December 31, 2020, the SpaceShipTwo configuration had completed more than 50 test flights, of which eight were rocket-powered test flights, including successful flights to space in December 2018 and February 2019. Prior to commercial launch, SpaceShipTwo will complete its flight test program at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

Hybrid Rocket Motor

Our SpaceShip is powered by a hybrid rocket propulsion system that propels it on a trajectory into space. The term “hybrid” rocket refers to the fact that the rocket uses a solid fuel grain and a liquid oxidizer. The fuel cartridge is consumed over the course of a flight, meaning that each SpaceShip flight will require the installation of a new, replaceable fuel cartridge that contains the fuel used in the hybrid rocket motor. The assembly of this fuel cartridge is designed to be efficient and to support high rates of commercial spaceflight. In 2018, our RocketMotor set a Guinness world record as the most powerful hybrid rocket to be used in manned flight. In February 2019, it was accepted into the permanent collection of the National Air and Space Museum.

Our RocketMotor has been designed to provide the required mission performance capability with a focus on safety, reliability and economy. Its design benefits from critical safety features, including its ability to be shut down safely at any time and its limited number of moving parts, which increases reliability and robustness for human spaceflight. Furthermore, the motor is made from a benign substance that needs no special or hazardous storage.

Our in-house propulsion team is in the process of upgrading our fuel cartridge production plant to increase the production rate and to reduce the unit production cost to accommodate planned growth in the SpaceShip fleet and drive increasingly attractive per-flight economics.

Safety Systems

We have designed our spaceflight system with a fundamental focus on safety. Important elements of our safety design include:

•Horizontal takeoff and landing. We believe that launching our SpaceShip from the mothership offers several critical safety advantages. Among other advantages, horizontal launch generally requires less fuel, oxidizer and pressurant on board than would otherwise be required. Moreover, the horizontal launch method allows increased time for pilots and crew to respond to any potential problems that may arise with the spaceship or its propulsion system. As such, if the

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pilots observe a problem while the SpaceShip is still mated to the mothership, they can quickly and safely return to the ground without releasing SpaceShip. Furthermore, if potential concerns emerge after release from the mothership, SpaceShip can simply glide back to the runway.

•The mothership's engine reliability. Highly reliable and rigorously tested jet engines made by Pratt and Whitney Canada power the first 45,000 feet of the journey to space.

•Two pilots per vehicle. Two pilots will fly in each mothership and each SpaceShip. Having a second pilot in the vehicles spreads the workload and provides critical redundancies.

•Design of our RocketMotors. Our RocketMotor is a simple and robust, human-rated spaceflight rocket motor with no turbo-pumps or complicated machinery. This rocket offers simple shut-off control at any point in the trajectory, unlike a traditional solid rocket motor.

•Feathering system. Our unique wing feathering technology provides self-correcting capability that requires limited pilot input for our SpaceShip to align properly for re-entry.

•Astronaut preparation. Each of our future astronauts will go through a customized medical screening and flight preparation process, including training for the use of communication systems, flight protocols, emergency procedures and G-force training. In addition, initial customer questionnaires and health tracking have been completed and are maintained in a comprehensive and secure medical database.

•Full mission abort capability. Due to our air-launch configuration and flight profile, mission abort capability exists at all points along the flight path and consists of aborts that mimic the normal mission profile. For example, if pre-launch release criteria are not met, the SpaceShip is designed to remain attached to the carrier aircraft and make a smooth, mated landing. In the event of an abort in a short-burn duration, the spaceship pilot may choose to fly a parabolic, gliding recovery. For longer duration burns, pilots will continue to climb to configure a feathered re-entry and establish a gliding recovery at nominal altitudes.

Spaceport America

The future astronauts’ flight preparation and experience will take place at Spaceport America, the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world. Spaceport America is located in New Mexico on 27 square miles of desert landscape and includes a space terminal, hangar facilities and a 12,000 foot runway. The facility has access to 6,000 square miles of restricted airspace running from the ground to space. The restricted airspace will facilitate frequent and consistent flight scheduling, and the desert climate and its relatively predictable weather provide favorable launch conditions year-round. The development costs of Spaceport America were largely funded by the State of New Mexico. Our license from the FAA includes Spaceport America as a location from which we can launch and land our spaceflight system.

The terminal hangar building, officially designated the “Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space,” was designed to be functional and beautiful, matching future astronauts’ high expectations of a Virgin-branded facility and delivering an aesthetic consistent with the Virgin Galactic experience. The form of the building in the landscape and its interior spaces capture the drama and mystery of spaceflight, reflecting the thrill of space travel for our future astronauts. The LEED-Gold certified building has ample capacity to accommodate our staff, our customer training and preparation facilities and our fleet of vehicles.

The Astronaut Journey

Our goal is to offer our future astronauts an unmatched but affordable opportunity to experience spaceflight safely and without the need for any special prior experience or significant prior training and preparation. We have worked diligently for over a decade to plan every aspect of the customer’s journey to become an astronaut, drawing on a world-class team with extensive experience with human spaceflight, high-end customer experiences and reliable transportation system operations and safety. We have had the considerable advantage of building and managing our initial community of future astronauts, comprised of individuals from 66 countries who have made reservations to fly on our SpaceShips. This community is actively engaged, allowing us to understand the style of customer service and experience expected before, during and after each flight. We have used customer input to ensure that each customer’s journey with us, from end to end, will represent a pinnacle life experience and achievement.

The journey begins with a personalized and consultative sales process. Once the reservation transaction is completed, the customer receives an “onboarding” call from our direct sales organization, known as our "Astronaut Office," in London and is

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provided with a personalized welcome pack. This pack contains a desktop model of the spaceship, a future astronaut community membership card and other branded assets, along with a video message and personal letter from Sir Richard Branson welcoming the future astronaut into the Virgin Galactic family. Future astronauts are kept apprised of community activity and company news through an app-accessed customer portal. Once we commence commercial operations, this portal will be the principal tool by which we will provide and receive necessary information from our future astronauts in preparation for their spaceflights.

Prior to traveling to Spaceport America to begin his or her journey, each future astronaut will be required to complete a medical history questionnaire. In addition to completing this questionnaire, each future astronaut will also undergo a physical exam with an aerospace medicine specialist, typically within six months of flight. Some future astronauts may be asked for additional testing as indicated by their health status. Based on our observations in tests involving a large group of our future astronauts, we believe that the vast majority of people who want to travel to space in our program will not be prevented from doing so by health or fitness considerations.

Pre-Flight Training

Future astronauts will participate in several days of pre-flight training near Spaceport America. The spaceflight is expected to occur following the completion of training.

Pre-flight training will include briefings, mock-up training and time spent with the mission’s fellow future astronauts and crew. The purpose of this training is to ensure that the future astronauts get the maximum enjoyment of their spaceflight experience while ensuring that they do so safely, particularly the key attributes of the unique sensation of weightlessness and the feeling of dramatic acceleration upon launch.

We have worked with training experts, behavioral health experts, experienced flight technicians, and experienced government astronauts in order to customize training for our suborbital missions. This program is expected to include training for emergency egress, flight communication systems, flight protocols, seat ingress and egress and will meet all training requirements prescribed by applicable regulation.

The training program has been built on the philosophy that familiarization with the systems, procedures, equipment and personnel that will be involved in the actual flight will make the future astronaut more comfortable and allow the customer to focus his or her attention on having the best possible experience. As a result, most training is expected to involve hands-on activities with real flight hardware or with high fidelity mock-ups.

Although broadly similar for each flight, the training program and the flight schedule may vary slightly depending on the backgrounds, personalities, physical health of the astronauts and weather and other conditions. Additionally, we expect to review, assess and modify the program regularly as we gain commercial experience.

The Spaceflight Experience

On the morning of their flight to space, the future astronauts will head out to the spaceport for their final flight briefings and preparation. Future astronauts will change into personal, custom-designed flight suits developed and fabricated by Under Armour via a brand partnership. The future astronauts will then meet up with their fellow future astronauts and board our SpaceShip, which will already be mated to the mothership.

The spaceship cabin has been designed, like the spaceport interior, to deliver an aesthetic consistent with our brand values and optimize the flight experience. User experience features are expected to include strategically positioned high definition video cameras, flight data displays and cabin lighting. Virgin companies are renowned for their interior design, particularly in the aviation industry. That experience and reputation have been brought to bear on both spaceship and spaceport interiors to optimize the customer journey.

Once all future astronauts are safely onboard and the pilots have coordinated with the appropriate regulatory and operational groups, the mothership will take-off and climb to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet. Once at altitude, the pilots will perform all necessary vehicle and safety checks and then will release the SpaceShip from the mothership. Within seconds, the rocket motor will be fired, instantly producing acceleration forces of up to 4Gs as the spaceship undertakes a near vertical climb and achieves speeds of more than Mach 3.

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The rocket motor will fire for approximately 60 seconds, burning all of its propellant, and the spaceship will coast up to apogee. Our astronauts will be able to exit their seats and experience weightlessness, floating about the cabin and positioning themselves at one of the dozen windows around the cabin sides and top. The vehicle’s two pilots will maneuver the spaceship to give the astronauts spectacular views of the Earth and an opportunity to look out into the blackness of space. While the astronauts are enjoying their time in space, our SpaceShip’s pilots will have reconfigured the spaceship into its feathered re-entry configuration.

After enjoying several minutes of weightlessness, our astronauts will maneuver back to their seats to prepare for re-entry. We have conducted seat egress and ingress testing in weightlessness to verify that our astronauts will be able to return to their seats quickly and safely. Our personalized seats, custom-designed to support each astronaut safely during each phase of flight, will cushion the astronauts as the spaceship rapidly decelerates upon re-entry. Our astronauts will enjoy the journey back into the Earth’s atmosphere, at which time the vehicle’s wings will be returned to their normal configuration, and the spaceship will glide back to the original runway from which the combined mothership and SpaceShip pair had taken off less than two hours prior. Upon landing, astronauts will disembark and join family and friends to celebrate their achievements and receive their astronaut wings.

Sales and Marketing

As of December 31, 2020, we had reservations for approximately 600 spaceflight tickets and more than $80.0 million in deposits, representing potential revenue of approximately $120 million. Through strong capabilities in community management, we have high retention rates, despite deposits being refundable. In February 2020, we launched our One Small Step campaign, which allows interested individuals to place a $1,000 refundable registration deposit towards the cost of a future ticket once we reopen ticket sales and, as of December 31, 2020, we had received approximately 1,000 One Small Step deposits from 66 countries. We retired the "One Small Step" program on December 31, 2020, but plan on reopening ticket sales following Sir Richard Branson's flight expected in 2021. We believe these sales are largely attributable to the strength and prominence of the Virgin Galactic brand, which has driven many of our future astronauts directly to us with inbound requests. We have also benefited from Sir Richard Branson’s network to generate new inquiries and reservation sales, as well as referrals from existing reservation holders. As we transition to full commercialization, we intend to take a more active role in marketing and selling our spaceflight experience.

Given that sales of spaceflights are consultative and generally require a one-on-one sales approach, we intend to go to market using our direct sales organization. Our direct sales organization, known as the "Astronaut Office," is headquartered in London, England. The Astronaut Office also actively manages our future astronaut community and may choose to expand the reach of our direct sales organization using a global network of high-end travel professionals that we refer to as "Accredited Space Agents". Our Accredited Space Agents consist of high-end travel professionals worldwide that we hand-picked and individually trained to sell our spaceflights. Accredited Space Agents have contracted with us to sell spaceflight reservations and, while they actively sell other travel experiences, are precluded from selling spaceflight experiences from any other provider.

We are continuing to evaluate and develop our marketing strategy in anticipation of commercial operations and believe our existing direct sales organization, together with our available network of Accredited Space Agents, possess the people, processes, systems and experience we will need to support profitable and fast-growing commercial operations.

We have historically sold spaceflight tickets at a price point of up to $250,000 per ticket. However, given the expected demand for human spaceflight experiences and the limited available capacity, we expect the price of our tickets to increase for a period of time upon resuming sales activities.

Research and Education Applications

In addition to the potential market for human space travel, we believe our existing technology has potential application in additional markets, including scientific research and professional astronaut training. Historically, the ability to perform microgravity research has been limited by the same challenges facing human spaceflight, including the significant cost associated with traveling to space and the limited physical capacity available for passengers or other payloads. Additionally, the long launch lead times and the low launch rate for these journeys make it difficult to run an experiment quickly or to fly repeated experiments, and there has traditionally been a significant delay in a researcher’s ability to obtain the data from the experiment once the journey was complete. As a result, researchers have used parabolic aircraft and drop towers to create

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moments of microgravity and conduct significant research activities. While these solutions help address cost concerns, they offer only seconds of continuous microgravity per flight. They do not offer access to the upper atmosphere or space, rapid re-flight or, in the case of drop towers and sounding rockets, the opportunity for the principal investigator to fly with the scientific payload. We believe our existing spaceflight system addresses many of these issues by providing:

•researchers the ability to accompany and monitor their experiments in space;

•the ability to fly payloads repeatedly, which can enable lower cost and iterative experiments;

•prompt access to experiments following landing;

•access to a large payload capacity; and

•in the case of sounding rockets, gentler G-loading.

We believe the demand for access to suborbital research is likely to come from educational and commercial research institutions across a broad range of technical disciplines. Multiple government agencies and research institutions have expressed interest in contracting with us to launch research payloads to space and to conduct suborbital experiments. We have flown eight payloads for research-related missions and we expect research missions to form an important part of our launch manifest in the future.

Design, Development and Manufacturing

Our development and manufacturing team consists of talented and dedicated engineers, technicians and professionals with thousands of years of combined design, engineering, manufacturing and flight test experience from a wide variety of the world’s leading research, commercial and military aerospace organizations.

We have developed extensive vertically integrated aerospace development capabilities for developing, manufacturing and testing aircraft and related propulsion systems. These capabilities encompass preliminary systems and vehicle design and analysis, detail design, manufacturing, ground testing, flight testing and post-delivery support and maintenance. We believe our unique approach and rapid prototyping capabilities enable innovative ideas to be designed quickly and built and tested with process rigor. In addition, we have expertise in configuration management and developing documentation needed to transition our technologies and systems to commercial applications. We believe our breadth of capabilities, experienced and cohesive team, and culture would be difficult to re-create and can be easily leveraged on the future design, build and test of transformational aerospace vehicles.

The first vehicle we manufactured was VSS Unity, the second SpaceShipTwo. Leveraging the extensive design engineering invested in VSS Unity, we are currently manufacturing additional spaceships based on that design, at a substantially lower cost. In addition, we are manufacturing rocket motors to support the growth of our commercial operations over time.

Additionally, we have developed a significant amount of know-how, expertise and capabilities that we believe we can leverage to capture growing demand for innovative, agile and low-cost development projects for third parties, including contractors, government agencies and commercial service providers. We are exploring strategic relationships to develop new applications for our technologies and to develop new aerospace technologies for commercial and transportation applications that we believe will accelerate progress within relevant industries and enhance our growth.

All of our manufacturing operations, which include, among others, fabrication, assembly, warehouse and both ground and test operations, are located in Mojave, California, at the Air and Space Port, where our campus spans over 200,000 square feet. This location provides us with year-round access to airspace for various flight test programs.

Additional Potential Applications of our Technology and Expertise

We believe we can leverage our robust platform of advanced technologies, significant design, engineering and manufacturing experience, and thousands of hours of flight training to develop additional aerospace applications, including, among others, the manufacturing of aircraft capable of high-speed point-to-point travel. High-speed aircraft are aircraft capable of traveling at speeds faster than the speed of sound. We believe a significant market opportunity exists for vehicles with this capability, as they could be used to drastically reduce international travel times. In August 2020, following the completion of an

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internal mission concept review that allows progress to our next design phase, we unveiled the concept for our preliminary design of a high-speed aircraft. Under this initial design, the aircraft would be a Mach 3 certified delta-wing vehicle with a focus on environmental sustainability, and a cabin intended to accommodate 9 to 19 passengers flying at an altitude above 60,000 feet. We entered into a space act agreement with NASA in 2020 relating to the development of high-speed point-to-point travel technologies, and into a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce to collaborate in designing and developing engine propulsion technology for high-speed commercial aircraft.

While our primary focus for the foreseeable future is on commencing and managing our commercial human spaceflight operations, we intend to expand our commitment to exploring and evaluating the application of our technologies and expertise into these and other ancillary applications.

Competition

The commercial spaceflight industry is still developing and evolving, but we expect it to be highly competitive. Currently, our primary competitor in establishing a suborbital commercial human spaceflight market is Blue Origin, a privately-funded company that is seeking to develop a vertically-launched, suborbital spaceship. In addition, we are aware of several large, well-funded, public and private entities actively engaged in developing competitive products within the aerospace industry, including SpaceX and Boeing. While these companies are currently focused on providing orbital spaceflight transportation to government agencies, a fundamentally different product from ours, we cannot ensure that one or more of these companies will not shift their focus to include suborbital spaceflight and directly compete with us in the future. We may also explore the application of our proprietary technologies for other uses, such as high-speed point-to-point travel, where the industry is even earlier in its development.

Many of our current and potential competitors are larger and have substantially greater resources than we do. They may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies or the promotion and sale of their offerings, or to offer lower prices. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings. Further, it is possible that domestic or foreign companies or governments, some with greater experience in the aerospace industry or greater financial resources than we possess, will seek to provide products or services that compete directly or indirectly with our products and services in the future. Any such foreign competitor could potentially, for example, benefit from subsidies from or other protective measures by its home country.

We believe our ability to compete successfully as a commercial provider of human spaceflight does and will depend on several factors, including the price of our offerings, consumer confidence in the safety of our offerings, consumer satisfaction for the experiences we offer, and the frequency and availability of our offerings. We believe that we compete favorably on the basis of these factors.

Intellectual Property

Our success depends in part upon our ability to protect our core technology and intellectual property. We attempt to protect our intellectual property rights, both in the United States and abroad, through a combination of patent, trademark, copyright, and trade secret laws, as well as nondisclosure and invention assignment agreements with our consultants and employees, and we seek to control access to and distribution of, our proprietary information through non-disclosure agreements with our vendors and business partners. Unpatented research, development and engineering skills make an important contribution to our business, but we pursue patent protection when we believe it is possible and consistent with our overall strategy for safeguarding intellectual property.

Virgin Trademark License Agreement

We possess certain exclusive and non-exclusive rights to use the name and brand “Virgin Galactic” and the Virgin signature logo pursuant to an amended and restated trademark license agreement (the “Amended TMLA”). Our rights under the Amended TMLA are subject to certain reserved rights and pre-existing licenses granted by Virgin to third parties. In addition, for the term of the Amended TMLA, to the extent the Virgin Group does not otherwise have a right to place a director on our board of directors, we have agreed to provide Virgin with the right to appoint one director to our board of directors, provided the designee is qualified to serve on the board under all applicable corporate governance policies and applicable regulatory and listing requirements.

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Unless terminated earlier, the Amended TMLA will have an initial term of 25 years expiring October 2044, subject to up to two additional 10-year renewals by mutual agreement of the parties. The Amended TMLA may be terminated by Virgin upon the occurrence of several specified events, including if:

•we commit a material breach of our obligations under the Amended TMLA (subject to a cure period, if applicable);

•we materially damage the Virgin brand;

•we use the brand name “Virgin Galactic” outside of the scope of the activities licensed under the Amended TMLA (subject to a cure period);

•we become insolvent;

•we undergo a change of control to an unsuitable buyer, including to a competitor of Virgin;

•we fail to make use of the “Virgin Galactic” brand to conduct our business;

•we challenge the validity or entitlement of Virgin to own the “Virgin” brand; or

•the commercial launch of our services does not occur by a fixed date or thereafter if we are unable to undertake any commercial flights for paying passengers for a specified period (other than in connection with addressing a significant safety issue).

Upon any termination or expiration of the Amended TMLA, unless otherwise agreed with Virgin, we will have 90 days to exhaust, return or destroy any products or other materials bearing the licensed trademarks, and to change our corporate name to a name that does not include any of the licensed trademarks, including the Virgin name.

Pursuant to the terms of the Amended TMLA, we are obligated to pay Virgin quarterly royalties equal to the greater of (a) a low single-digit percentage of our gross sales and (b) (i) prior to the first spaceflight for paying future astronauts, a mid-five figure amount in dollars and (ii) from our first spaceflight for paying future astronauts, a low-six figure amount in dollars, which increases to a low-seven figure amount in dollars over a four-year ramp up and thereafter increases in correlation with the consumer price index. In relation to certain sponsorship opportunities, a higher, mid-double-digit percentage royalty on related gross sales applies.

The Amended TMLA also contains, among other things, customary mutual indemnification provisions, representations and warranties, information rights of Virgin and restrictions on our and our affiliates’ ability to apply for or obtain registration for any confusingly similar intellectual property to that licensed to us pursuant to the Amended TMLA. Furthermore, Virgin is generally responsible for the protection, maintenance, enforcement and protection of the licensed intellectual property, including the Virgin brand, subject to our step-in rights in certain circumstances.

All Virgin and Virgin-related trademarks are owned by Virgin and our use of such trademarks is subject to the terms of the Amended TMLA, including our adherence to Virgin’s quality control guidelines and granting Virgin customary audit rights over our use of the licensed intellectual property.

Spacecraft Technology License Agreement

We are party to a Spacecraft Technology License Agreement, as amended, with Mojave Aerospace Ventures, LLC (“MAV”) pursuant to which we possess a non-exclusive, worldwide license under certain patents and patent applications, including improvements that have been reduced to practice within a specified period. Unless terminated earlier, the term of this license agreement will expire on the later of a fixed date and the expiration date of the last to expire of the patent rights granted under the agreement. The license agreement and the associated licenses granted thereunder may be terminated if we commit a material breach of our obligations under the agreement that is uncured for more than 30 days or if we become insolvent.

Under the terms of the license agreement, we are obligated to pay MAV license fees and royalties through the later of a fixed date and the expiration date of the last to expire of the patent rights granted under the agreement of (a) a low-single-digit percentage of our commercial spaceflight operating revenue, subject to an annual cap that is adjusted annually for changes in the consumer price index, (b) a low-single-digit percentage of our gross operating revenue on the operation of spacecraft, and (c) a mid-single-digit percentage of our gross sales revenue of spacecraft sold to third parties.

Regulatory

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Federal Aviation Administration

The regulations, policies, and guidance issued by the FAA apply to the use and operation of our spaceflight system. When we operate our spaceflight system as “launch vehicles,” meaning a vehicle built to operate in, or place a payload or human beings in, space, the FAA’s commercial space transportation requirements apply. Operators of launch vehicles are required to have proper licenses, permits and authorizations from the FAA and comply with the FAA’s insurance requirements for third-party liability and government property. Congress enacted a law prohibiting the FAA from issuing regulations until 2023 for the safety of persons on launch vehicles such as our SpaceShips and mothership unless a death or serious injury, or event that could have led to a death or serious injury, were to occur earlier. Once this law expires, we may face increased and more expensive regulation from the FAA relating to our spaceflight activities. The FAA recently issued a revision to their regulations governing commercial spaceflight that is intended to streamline the approach towards licensing.We are evaluating the scope and impact of these regulations on our existing license as well as any future operations.

When not operating as launch vehicles, our spaceflight system vehicles are regulated as experimental aircraft by the FAA. The FAA is responsible for the regulation and oversight of matters relating to experimental aircraft, the control of navigable air space, the qualification of flight personnel, flight training practices, compliance with FAA aircraft certification and maintenance, and other matters affecting air safety and operations.

We have a current FAA Reusable Launch Vehicle Operator License that allows test and payload revenue flights from both Mojave, California and Spaceport America, New Mexico. Prior to being able to carry spaceflight participants, we are required by the FAA to submit final integrated vehicle performance results conducted in an operational flight environment, including final configuration of critical systems and aspects of the environmental control system and human factors performance. We have been submitting these verification reports throughout the test program and anticipate that the final two reports will be submitted following the successful completion of our next powered flight to space from Spaceport America.

Failure to comply with the FAA’s aviation or space transportation regulations may result in civil penalties or private lawsuits, or the suspension or revocation of licenses or permits, which would prevent us from operating our spaceflight system.

Informed Consent and Waiver

Our commercial human spaceflight operations and any third-party claims that arise from our operation of spaceflights are subject to federal and state laws governing informed consents and waivers of claims, including under the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (“CSLA”) and the New Mexico Space Flight Informed Consent Act (“SFICA”).

Under U.S. federal law and the CSLA, operators of spaceflights are required to obtain informed consent from both participants and members of the crew for any commercial human spaceflight. In addition, the CSLA requires that an operator must obtain any spaceflight participant’s informed consent before receiving compensation or making an agreement to fly. While compensation is not defined in regulation or statute, the FAA does not consider refundable deposits for future spaceflight to be compensation. Moreover, the CSLA established a three-tiered indemnification system, subject to appropriations, for a portion of claims by third parties for injury, damage or loss that result from a commercial spaceflight incident. All operators with an FAA-license for commercial launches and reentries are covered by this federal indemnification and are required to carry insurance in amounts up to the maximum probable loss level likely to occur in an accident subject to a cap. In the instance of a catastrophic loss, U.S. law provides that the federal government will pay up to $3.0 billion to indemnify the operator above the levels covered by insurance.

Additionally, the SFICA offers spaceflight companies protection in New Mexico, where we will conduct our commercial operations, from lawsuits from passengers on space vehicles where spaceflight participants provide informed consent and a waiver of claims. This law generally provides coverage to operators, manufacturers and suppliers, and requires operators to maintain at least $1.0 million in insurance for all spaceflight activities. The SFICA will automatically be repealed in July 2021 unless New Mexico chooses to extend it.

At this time, no such claim regarding these informed consent provisions has been brought in New Mexico or in federal courts. We are unable to determine whether the immunity provided by the CSLA, the SFICA or other applicable laws or regulations would be upheld by the U.S. or foreign courts. The various federal and state regulations regarding informed consent for suborbital commercial spaceflight are evolving, and we continue to monitor these developments. However, we cannot predict the timing, scope or terms of any other state, federal or foreign regulations relating to informed consent and waivers of claims relating to commercial human spaceflight.

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International Traffic in Arms Regulations and Export Controls

Our spaceflight business is subject to, and we must comply with, stringent U.S. import and export control laws, including the International Traffic in Arms Regulations ("ITAR") and the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (the “EAR"). The ITAR generally restricts the export of hardware, software, technical data, and services that have defense or strategic applications. The EAR similarly regulates the export of hardware, software, and technology that has commercial or “dual-use” applications (i.e., for both military and commercial applications) or that have less sensitive military or space-related applications that are not subject to the ITAR. The regulations exist to advance the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States.

The U.S. government agencies responsible for administering the ITAR and the EAR have significant discretion in the interpretation and enforcement of these regulations. The agencies also have significant discretion in approving, denying, or conditioning authorizations to engage in controlled activities. Such decisions are influenced by the U.S. government’s commitments to multilateral export control regimes, particularly the Missile Technology Control Regime with respect to the spaceflight business.

Many different types of internal controls and safeguards are required to maintain compliance with such export control rules. In particular, we are required to maintain a registration under the ITAR; determine the proper licensing jurisdiction and classification of products, software and technology; and obtain licenses or other forms of U.S. government authorizations to engage in certain activities, including the performance of services for foreign persons, related to and that support our spaceflight business. The authorization requirements include the need to get permission to release controlled technology to foreign persons, including foreign person employees. The inability to secure and maintain necessary licenses and other authorizations could negatively affect our ability to compete successfully or to operate our spaceflight business as planned. Any changes in the export control regulations or U.S. government licensing policy, such as that necessary to implement U.S. government commitments to multilateral control regimes, may restrict our operations.

Failure by us to comply with export control laws and regulations could result in reputational harm as well as significant civil or criminal penalties, fines, more onerous compliance requirements, loss of export privileges, debarment from government contracts, or limitations on our ability to enter into contracts with the U.S. government. Further, even investigations of suspected or alleged violations can be expensive and disruptive. Thus, violations (or allegations of violations) of applicable export control laws and regulations could materially adversely affect our reputation, business, financial condition and results of operations.

Human Capital

Our employees, our teammates, are the cornerstone to our success. As of December 31, 2020, we had 823 employees across the globe. Prior to joining our company, many of our employees had prior experience working for a wide variety of reputed commercial aviation, aerospace, high-technology, and world-recognized organizations.

Our integrated human capital management strategy includes the acquisition, development, and retention of our employees, our teammates, as well as the design of market-based compensation and benefits programs to enable and achieve our strategic mission.

•Total Workforce Demographics:

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•Compensation and Benefits:

◦Virgin Galactic strives to offer competitive compensation, benefits and services that meet the needs of its employees, including short time and long-term incentive programs, defined contribution plan, healthcare benefits, and wellness and employee assistance programs. Management monitors market compensation and benefits to attract, retain and promote high-performing employees and reduce turnover and associated costs. In addition, Virgin Galactic's incentive programs are aligned with the Company's mission and intended to motivate strong performance.

◦For the year ended 2020, the compensation and benefits expense payable to and earned by personnel totaled $103.8 million.

•Safety Performance Highlights:

◦Virgin Galactic's Experience Modification Rate associated with workers compensation rating was .51 for our 2020 for our Mojave campus and .56 for our New Mexico sites, our major U.S. worksites. Such a rating demonstrates a safety rate performance that reflects safer overall workplaces to companies in our categories.

◦Our 2020 OSHA recordable rate versus peer space, aerospace, and space launch vehicle manufacturing companies were approximately 75% more effective.

•Supporting our Employees through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond:

◦In response to COVID-19, related state and local government orders to stay at home, Virgin Galactic immediately responded in February 2020 with the creation of a COVID-19 Task Force as part of our internal and external pandemic emergency response plan.

◦In partnership with our human resources, medical, safety, security, legal, and communications organizations, our Company executives and Chief Executive Officer provided and shared comprehensive resources and tools, extensive communications to assist and support our employees with overall wellness, mental wellness and cope with stress, anxiety, isolation, and loss, while for many of our employees balancing work and childcare obligations in the pandemic. Based on the location of our core facilities and its associated communities, these areas were some of the more significant areas of the pandemic within the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

◦Beginning in April 2020, Virgin Galactic offered for all employees required to work onsite the benefit of routine testing and, in the third quarter of 2020, commenced offering an in-house testing benefit offering for employees required to work onsite.

Available Information

We file annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the SEC. Our SEC filings are available to the public over the internet at the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov. Our SEC filings are also available free of charge on the Investor Information page of our website at virgingalactic.com as soon as reasonably practicable after they are filed with or furnished to the SEC. Our website and the information contained on or through that site are not incorporated into this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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Item 1A. Risk Factors

Our operations and financial results are subject to various risks and uncertainties, including those described below. You should consider carefully the risks and uncertainties described below, in addition to the other information contained in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, including our consolidated financial statements and related notes. The risks and uncertainties described below are not the only ones we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that we are unaware of, or that we currently believe are not material, may also become important factors that adversely affect our business. If any of the following risks or others not specified below materialize, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected. In that case, the trading price of our common stock could decline.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have incurred significant losses since inception, we expect to incur losses in the future and we may not be able to achieve or maintain profitability.

We have incurred significant losses since inception. We incurred net losses of $273.0 million, $210.9 million and $138.1 million for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018, respectively. While we have generated limited revenue from flying payloads into space, we have not yet started commercial human spaceflight operations, and it is difficult for us to predict our future operating results. As a result, our losses may be larger than anticipated, and we may not achieve profitability when expected, or at all, and even if we do, we may not be able to maintain or increase profitability.

We expect our operating expenses to increase over the next several years as we move towards commercial launch of our human spaceflight operations, continue to attempt to streamline our manufacturing process, increase our flight cadence, hire more employees and continue research and development efforts relating to new products and technologies. These efforts may be more costly than we expect and may not result in increased revenue or growth in our business. Any failure to increase our revenue sufficiently to keep pace with our investments and other expenses could prevent us from achieving or maintaining profitability or positive cash flow. Furthermore, if our future growth and operating performance fail to meet investor or analyst expectations, or if we have future negative cash flow or losses resulting from our investment in acquiring future astronauts or expanding our operations, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

The success of our business will be highly dependent on our ability to effectively market and sell human spaceflights.

We have generated only limited revenue from spaceflight, and we expect that our success will be highly dependent, especially in the foreseeable future, on our ability to effectively market and sell human spaceflight experiences. We have limited experience in marketing and selling human spaceflights, which we refer to as our astronaut experience. If we are unable to utilize our current sales organization effectively, or to expand our sales organization as needed, to adequately target and engage our potential future astronauts, our business may be adversely affected. To date, we have primarily sold the reservations for our astronaut experience to future astronauts through direct sales and have sold a limited number of seats each year. Since 2014, we have not been actively selling our astronaut experience. Our success depends, in part, on our ability to attract new future astronauts in a cost-effective manner. While we had a backlog of approximately 600 future astronauts as of December 31, 2020, we are making, and we expect that we will need to make, significant investments in order to attract new future astronauts. Our sales growth depends on our ability to implement strategic initiatives and these initiatives may not be effective in generating sales growth. In addition, marketing campaigns, which we have not historically utilized, can be expensive and may not result in the acquisition of future astronauts in a cost-effective manner, if at all. Further, as our brand becomes more widely known, future marketing campaigns or brand content may not attract new future astronauts at the same rate as past campaigns or brand content. If we are unable to attract new future astronauts, our business, financial condition and results of operations will be harmed.

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A pandemic outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, has disrupted and may continue to adversely affect our business operations and our financial results.

The global spread of COVID-19 has disrupted certain aspects of our operations and may adversely impact our business operations, including our ability to execute on our business strategy and goals. Specifically, the continued spread of COVID-19 and precautionary actions taken related to COVID-19 have adversely impacted, and are expected to continue to adversely impact, our operations, including our ability to complete the development of our spaceflight systems, or our spaceflight test programs, causing delays or disruptions in our supply chain, and decreasing our operational efficiency in space flight system manufacturing, maintenance, ground operations and flight operations. They may also delay our implementation of additional internal control measures to improve our internal control over financial reporting.

Additionally, many jurisdictions, including in California, New Mexico and the United Kingdom, where most of our workforce is located, have imposed, or in the future may impose or continue to impose, “shelter-in-place” orders, quarantines or similar orders or restrictions to control the spread of COVID-19 by restricting non-essential activities and business operations. Compliance with these orders has disrupted and may continue to disrupt our standard operations, including disruption of operations necessary to complete the development of our spaceflight systems and postponement of our scheduled spaceflight test programs. For example, consistent with the actions taken by governmental authorities, we initially reduced and then temporarily suspended on-site operations at our facilities in Mojave, Spaceport America, Washington D.C. and London in March 2020. On account of use categorization as an essential activity, we resumed some limited operations in April 2020 and gradually ramped up on-site operations over the course of 2020 as we developed revised operational and manufacturing footprint plans that continued to conform to COVID-19 health precautions while the majority of the remaining workforce remains working from home. During 2020, the Company's additional measures and investments were made in our facilities to ensure the health and safety of our employees. Such investment measures included universal facial coverings, rearranging aspects of our facilities to follow required social distancing protocols, offering COVID-19 testing, conducting daily temperature checks and screening questions prior to entering our facilities and undertaking regular and thorough disinfecting of work surfaces, tools and equipment. In 2020, we experienced COVID-19 illness in our workforce. Our COVID-19 efforts resulted in the reduction of operational efficiency within our impacted workforce while we navigated the ability to maintain manufacturing operations in our sites.

The pandemic has also resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption and volatility of global financial markets. This disruption and volatility may adversely impact our ability to access capital, which could in the future negatively affect our liquidity and capital resources. Given the impact of the virus, responsive measures taken by governmental authorities and the uncertainty about its impact on society and the global economy, we cannot predict the extent to which it will affect our global operations. To the extent COVID-19 adversely affects our business operations and financial results, it may also have the effect of heightening many of the other risks described in this "Risk Factors" section.

The market for commercial human spaceflight has not been established with precision. It is still emerging and may not achieve the growth potential we expect or may grow more slowly than expected.

The market for commercial human spaceflight has not been established with precision and is still emerging. Our estimates for the total addressable market for commercial human spaceflight are based on a number of internal and third-party estimates, including our current backlog, the number of consumers who have expressed interest in our astronaut experience, assumed prices at which we can offer our astronaut experience, assumed flight cadence, our ability to leverage our current manufacturing and operational processes and general market conditions. While we believe our assumptions and the data underlying our estimates are reasonable, these assumptions and estimates may not be correct. The conditions supporting our assumptions or estimates may change at any time, thereby reducing the predictive accuracy of these underlying factors. As a result, our estimates of the annual total addressable market for our astronaut experience, as well as the expected growth rate for the total addressable market for that experience, may prove to be incorrect.

We anticipate commencing commercial spaceflight operations with a single spaceflight system, which has yet to complete flight testing. Any delay in completing the flight test program and the final development of our existing spaceflight system would adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We expect to commence commercial operations with a single spaceflight system, with both the spaceship and the carrier craft being needed to conduct commercial spaceflight operations. While we have already been issued our commercial spaceflight license by the FAA, a series of verification reports are required to be submitted to the FAA before we are able to fly commercial paying customers on our spaceflight system. Following each flight test we undertake, we analyze the resulting data and determine whether additional changes to the spaceflight system are required. Historically, changes have been required and

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implementing those changes has resulted in additional delay and expense. For example, an unanticipated in-flight incident involving an earlier model of SpaceShipTwo manufactured and operated by a third-party contractor, led to the loss of that spaceship and significant delays in the planned launch of our spaceflight system as we addressed design and safety concerns, including with applicable regulators. If issues like this arise or recur, if our remediation measures and process changes do not continue to be successful or if we experience issues with manufacturing improvements or design and safety of either the spaceship or the carrier craft that comprise our spaceflight system, the anticipated launch of our commercial human spaceflight operations could be delayed.

Any inability to operate our spaceflight system after commercial launch at our anticipated flight rate could adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Even if we complete development and commence commercial human spaceflight operations, we currently are dependent on a single spaceflight system. To be successful, we will need to maintain a sufficient flight rate, which will be negatively impacted if we are not able to operate that system for any reason. We may be unable to operate our current spaceflight system at our anticipated flight rate for a number of reasons, including, but not limited to, unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, pilot error, design and engineering flaws, natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics, changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory approvals or applications or other events that force us to cancel or reschedule flights. Our spaceflight systems are highly sophisticated and depend on complex technology, and we require them to meet rigorous performance goals that may from time to time necessitate that we replace critical components or hardware. Our ability to operate in airspace may also be superseded by the U.S. Department of Defense priority missions. In the event we need to replace any components or hardware of our spaceflight system, there are limited numbers of replacement parts available, some of which have significant lead time associated with procurement or manufacture, so any failure of our systems or their components or hardware could result in reduced numbers of flights and significant delays to our planned growth.

Our ability to grow our business depends on the successful development of our spaceflight systems and related technology, which is subject to many uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control.

Our current primary research and development objectives focus on the development of our existing and any additional spaceflight systems and related technology. If we do not complete this development in our anticipated timeframes or at all, our ability to grow our business will be adversely affected. The successful development of our spaceflight systems and related technology involves many uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control, including:

•the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on us, our customers, suppliers and distributors, and the global economy;

•timing in finalizing spaceflight systems design and specifications;

•successful completion of flight test programs, including flight safety tests;

•our ability to obtain additional applicable approvals, licenses or certifications from regulatory agencies, if required, and maintaining current approvals, licenses or certifications;

•performance of our manufacturing facilities despite risks that disrupt productions, such as natural disasters and hazardous materials;

•performance of a limited number of suppliers for certain raw materials and supplied components;

•performance of our third-party contractors that support our research and development activities;

•our ability to maintain rights from third parties for intellectual properties critical to our research and development activities; and

•our ability to continue funding and maintain our current research and development activities.

Unsatisfactory safety performance of our spaceflight systems or security incidents at our facilities could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We manufacture and operate highly sophisticated spaceflight systems and offer a specialized astronaut experience that depends on complex technology. While we have built operational processes to ensure that the design, manufacture, performance and servicing of our spaceflight systems meet rigorous performance goals, there can be no assurance that we will not experience operational or process failures and other problems, including through manufacturing or design defects, pilot error, natural disasters, cyber-attacks, or other intentional acts, that could result in potential safety risks. In addition, we may experience threats to the security of our facilities and employees or threats from terrorist or other acts. We work cooperatively

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with our suppliers, subcontractors, venture partners and other parties, such as our lessors, to address and prepare for these risks, but in some instances, we must rely on safeguards put in place by these third parties, some of which we may not control. There can be no assurance that our preparations, or those of third parties, will be able to prevent any such incidents.

Any actual or perceived safety issues may result in significant reputational harm to our businesses, in addition to tort liability, maintenance, increased safety infrastructure and other costs that may arise. Such issues with our spaceflight systems, facilities, or customer safety could result in delaying or cancelling planned flights, increased regulation or other systemic consequences. Our inability to meet our safety standards or adverse publicity affecting our reputation as a result of accidents, mechanical failures, damages to customer property or medical complications could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.

We may not be able to convert our orders in backlog or inbound inquiries about flight reservations into revenue.

As of December 31, 2020, our backlog represents orders from approximately 600 future astronauts for which we have not yet recognized revenue. While many of these orders were accompanied by a significant deposit, the deposits are largely refundable and the reservations may be cancelled under certain circumstances without penalty. Additionally, we have received approximately 1,000 One Small Step deposits as of December 31, 2020, which are for only $1,000 per deposit and are also fully refundable. As a result, we may not receive revenue from these orders and deposits, and any order backlog or other deposits we report may not be indicative of our future revenue. Additionally, the deposits we have received to date from customers interested in an orbital space program are all currently refundable.

Many events may cause a delay in our ability to fulfill reservations or cause planned spaceflights to not be completed at all, some of which may be out of our control, including unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, natural disasters, epidemics or pandemics, changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory approvals or applications or other events that force us to cancel or reschedule flights. If we delay spaceflights or if future astronauts reconsider their astronaut experience, those future astronauts may seek to cancel their planned spaceflight, and may obtain a full or partial refund.

We have not yet tested flights at our anticipated full passenger capacity of our spaceship.

To date, only one of our test flights included a crew member that was not a pilot. The success of our human spaceflight operations will depend on our achieving and maintaining a sufficient level of passenger capacity on our spaceflights. We have not yet tested flights with a full cabin and it is possible that the number of passengers per flight may not meet our expectations for a number of factors, including maximization of the passenger experience and satisfaction. Any decrease from our assumptions in the number of passengers per flight could adversely impact our ability to generate revenue at the rate we anticipate.

Any delays in the development and manufacture of additional spaceflight systems and related technology may adversely impact our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We have previously experienced, and may experience in the future, delays or other complications in the design, manufacture, launch, production, delivery and servicing ramp of new spaceflight systems and related technology, including due to the global COVID-19 health crisis. If delays like this arise or recur, if our remediation measures and process changes do not continue to be successful or if we experience issues with planned manufacturing improvements or design and safety, we could experience issues in sustaining the ramp of our spaceflight system or delays in increasing production further.

If we encounter difficulties in scaling our delivery or servicing capabilities, if we fail to develop and successfully commercialize spaceflight technologies, if we fail to develop such technologies before our competitors, or if such technologies fail to perform as expected, are inferior to those of our competitors or are perceived as less safe than those of our competitors, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted.

If we are unable to adapt to and satisfy customer demands in a timely and cost-effective manner, our ability to grow our business may suffer.

The success of our business depends in part on effectively managing and maintaining our existing spaceflight system, manufacturing more spaceflight systems, operating a sufficient number of spaceflights to meet customer demand and providing future astronauts with an astronaut experience that meets or exceeds their expectations. If for any reason we are unable to manufacture new spaceflight systems or are unable to schedule spaceflights as planned, this could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If our current or future spaceflight systems do not meet expected

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performance or quality standards, including with respect to customer safety and satisfaction, this could cause operational delays. In addition, any delay in manufacturing new spacecraft as planned could cause us to operate our existing spaceflight system more frequently than planned and in such a manner that may increase maintenance costs. Further, flight operations within restricted airspace require advance scheduling and coordination with government range owners and other users, and any high priority national defense assets will have priority in the use of these resources, which may impact our cadence of spaceflight operations or could result in cancellations or rescheduling. Any operational or manufacturing delays or other unplanned changes to our ability to operate spaceflights could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may be unable to manage our future growth effectively, which could make it difficult to execute our business strategy.

If our operations continue to grow as planned, of which there can be no assurance, we will need to expand our sales and marketing, research and development, customer and commercial strategy, products and services, supply, and manufacturing and distribution functions. We will also need to continue to leverage our manufacturing and operational systems and processes, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to scale the business and the manufacture of spacecraft as currently planned or within the planned timeframe. The continued expansion of our business may also require additional manufacturing and operational facilities, as well as space for administrative support, and there is no guarantee that we will be able to find suitable locations or partners for the manufacture and operation of our spaceflight systems.

Our continued growth could increase the strain on our resources, and we could experience operating difficulties, including difficulties in hiring, training and managing an increasing number of pilots and employees, finding manufacturing capacity to produce our spaceflight systems and related equipment, and delays in production and spaceflights. These difficulties may result in the erosion of our brand image, divert the attention of management and key employees and impact financial and operational results. In addition, in order to continue to expand our fleet of spacecraft and increase our presence around the globe, we expect to incur substantial expenses as we continue to attempt to streamline our manufacturing process, increase our flight cadence, hire more employees, and continue research and development efforts relating to new products and technologies and expand internationally. If we are unable to drive commensurate growth, these costs, which include lease commitments, headcount and capital assets, could result in decreased margins, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our prospects and operations may be adversely affected by changes in consumer preferences and economic conditions that affect demand for our spaceflights.

Because our business is currently concentrated on a single, discretionary product category, commercial human spaceflight, we are vulnerable to changes in consumer preferences or other market changes. The global economy has in the past, and will in the future, experience recessionary periods and periods of economic instability, including the current business disruption and related financial impact resulting from the global COVID-19 health crisis. During such periods, our potential future astronauts may choose not to make discretionary purchases or may reduce overall spending on discretionary purchases, which may include not scheduling spaceflight experiences or cancelling existing reservations for spaceflight experiences. There could be a number of other effects from adverse general business and economic conditions on our business, including insolvency of any of our third-party suppliers or contractors, decreased consumer confidence, decreased discretionary spending and reduced consumer demand for spaceflight experiences. Moreover, future shifts in consumer spending away from our spaceflight experience for any reason, including decreased consumer confidence, adverse economic conditions or heightened competition, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. If such business and economic conditions are experienced in future periods, this could reduce our sales and adversely affect our profitability, as demand for discretionary purchases may diminish during economic downturns, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Adverse publicity stemming from any incident involving us or our competitors, or an incident involving a commercial airline or other air travel provider, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We are at risk of adverse publicity stemming from any public incident involving our company, our people or our brand. If our personnel or one of our spaceflight systems, or the personnel or spacecraft of one of our competitors or the personnel or aircraft of a commercial airline or governmental agency, were to be involved in a public incident, accident or catastrophe, this could create an adverse public perception of spaceflight and result in decreased customer demand for spaceflight experiences, which could cause a material adverse effect on our business, financial conditions and results of operations. Further, if our personnel or our spaceflight systems were to be involved in a public incident, accident or catastrophe, we could be exposed to significant reputational harm or potential legal liability. Any reputational harm to our business could cause future astronauts

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with existing reservations to cancel their spaceflights and could significantly impact our ability to make future sales. The insurance we carry may be inapplicable or inadequate to cover any such incident, accident or catastrophe. In the event that our insurance is inapplicable or not adequate, we may be forced to bear substantial losses from an incident or accident.

Due to the inherent risks associated with commercial spaceflight, there is the possibility that any accident or catastrophe could lead to the loss of human life or a medical emergency.

Human spaceflight is an inherently risky activity that can lead to accidents or catastrophes impacting human life. For example, on October 31, 2014, VSS Enterprise, an earlier model of SpaceShipTwo manufactured and operated by a third-party contractor, had an accident during a rocket-powered test flight. The pilot was seriously injured, the co-pilot was fatally injured and the vehicle was destroyed. As part of its 2015 accident investigation report, the National Transportation Safety Board (the “NTSB”) determined that the probable cause of the accident related to the failure by a third-party contractor to consider and protect against the possibility that a single human error could result in a catastrophic hazard to the vehicle. After the accident, we assumed responsibility for the completion of the flight test program and submitted a report to the NTSB that listed the actions we were taking for reducing the likelihood and effect of human error. This included modification of the feather lock control mechanism to add automatic inhibits that would prevent inadvertent operation during safety critical periods of flight. We have implemented and repeatedly demonstrated the efficacy of these actions, including implementing more rigorous protocols and procedures for safety-critical aircrew actions, requiring additional training for pilots that focuses on response protocols for safety critical actions, and eliminating certain single-point human performance actions that could potentially lead to similar accidents. We believe the steps we have taken are sufficient to address the issues noted in the NTSB’s report; however, it is impossible to completely eliminate the potential for human error, and there is a possibility that other accidents may occur in the future as a result of human error or for a variety of other reasons, some of which may be out of our control. Any such accident could result in substantial losses to us, including reputational harm and legal liability, and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may require substantial additional funding to finance our operations, but adequate additional financing may not be available when we need it, on acceptable terms or at all.

Prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we financed our operations and capital expenditures primarily through cash flows financed by V10. In the future, we could be required to raise capital through public or private financing or other arrangements. Such financing may not be available on acceptable terms, or at all, and our failure to raise capital when needed could harm our business. For example, the ongoing global COVID-19 health crisis and related financial impact has resulted in, and may continue to result in, significant disruption and volatility of global financial markets that could adversely impact our ability to access capital. We may sell equity securities or debt securities in one or more transactions at prices and in a manner as we may determine from time to time. If we sell any such securities in subsequent transactions, our current investors may be materially diluted. Any debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants and could reduce our operational flexibility or profitability. If we cannot raise funds on acceptable terms, we may not be able to grow our business or respond to competitive pressures.

Certain future operational facilities may require significant expenditures in capital improvements and operating expenses to develop and foster basic levels of service needed by the spaceflight operation, and the ongoing need to maintain existing operational facilities requires us to expend capital.

As part of our growth strategy, we may utilize additional spaceports outside the United States. Construction of a spaceport or other facilities in which we conduct our operations may require significant capital expenditures to develop, and in the future we may be required to make similar expenditures to expand, improve or construct adequate facilities for our spaceflight operations. While Spaceport America was funded by the State of New Mexico and we intend to pursue similar arrangements in the future, we cannot assure that such arrangements will be available to us on terms similar to those we have with the State of New Mexico or at all. If we cannot secure such an arrangement, we would need to use cash flows from operations or raise additional capital in order to construct additional spaceports or facilities. In addition, as Spaceport America and any other facilities we may utilize mature, our business will require capital expenditures for the maintenance, renovation and improvement of such existing locations to remain competitive and maintain the value of our brand standard. This creates an ongoing need for capital, and, to the extent we cannot fund capital expenditures from cash flows from operations, we will need to borrow or otherwise obtain funds. If we cannot access the capital we need, we may not be able to execute on our growth strategy, take advantage of future opportunities or respond to competitive pressures. If the costs of funding new locations or renovations or enhancements at existing locations exceed budgeted amounts or the time for building or renovation is longer than anticipated, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected.

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We rely on a limited number of suppliers for certain raw materials and supplied components. We may not be able to obtain sufficient raw materials or supplied components to meet our manufacturing and operating needs, or obtain such materials on favorable terms, which could impair our ability to fulfill our orders in a timely manner or increase our costs of production.

Our ability to produce our current and future spaceflight systems and other components of operation is dependent upon sufficient availability of raw materials and supplied components, such as nitrous oxide, valves, tanks, special alloys, helium and carbon fiber, which we secure from a limited number of suppliers. Our reliance on suppliers to secure these raw materials and supplied components exposes us to volatility in the prices and availability of these materials. We may not be able to obtain sufficient supply of raw materials or supplied components, on favorable terms or at all, which could result in delays in manufacture of our spacecraft or increased costs. For example, there are only a few nitrous oxide plants around the world and if one or more of these plants were to experience a slowdown in operations or to shutdown entirely, including as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, we may need to qualify new suppliers or pay higher prices to maintain the supply of nitrous oxide needed for our operations.

In addition, we have in the past and may in the future experience delays in manufacture or operation as we go through the requalification process with any replacement third-party supplier, as well as the limitations imposed by ITAR and other restrictions on transfer of sensitive technologies. Additionally, the imposition of tariffs on such raw materials or supplied components could have a material adverse effect on our operations. Prolonged disruptions in the supply of any of our key raw materials or components, difficulty qualifying new sources of supply, implementing use of replacement materials or new sources of supply or any volatility in prices could have a material adverse effect on our ability to operate in a cost-efficient, timely manner and could cause us to experience cancellations or delays of scheduled spaceflights, customer cancellations or reductions in our prices and margins, any of which could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Our spaceflight systems and related equipment may have shorter useful lives than we anticipate.

Our growth strategy depends in part on the continued operation of our current spaceflight system and related equipment, as well as the manufacture of other spaceflight systems in the future. Each spaceflight system has a limited useful life, which is driven by the number of cycles that the system undertakes. While the vehicle is designed for a certain number of cycles, known as the design life, there can be no assurance as to the actual operational life of a spaceflight system or that the operational life of individual components will be consistent with its design life. A number of factors impact the useful lives of the spaceflight systems, including, among other things, the quality of their design and construction, the durability of their component parts and availability of any replacement components, the actual combined environment experienced compared to the assumed combined environment for which the spaceflight systems were designed and tested and the occurrence of any anomaly or series of anomalies or other risks affecting the spaceflight systems during launch, flight and reentry. In addition, we are continually learning, and as our engineering and manufacturing expertise and efficiency increases, we aim to leverage this learning to be able to manufacture our spaceflight systems and related equipment using less of our currently installed equipment, which could render our existing inventory obsolete. Any continued improvements in spaceflight technology may make obsolete our existing spaceflight systems or any component of our spacecraft prior to the end of its life. If the spaceflight systems and related equipment have shorter useful lives than we currently anticipate, this may lead to greater maintenance costs than previously anticipated such that the cost to maintain the spacecraft and related equipment may exceed their value, which would have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Failure of third-party contractors could adversely affect our business.

We are dependent on various third-party contractors to develop and provide critical technology, systems and components required for our spaceflight system. For example, each spaceflight currently requires replenishment of certain components of our RocketMotor propulsion system that we obtain from third-party contractors. Should we experience complications with any of these components, which are critical to the operation of our spacecraft, we may need to delay or cancel scheduled spaceflights. We face the risk that any of our contractors may not fulfill their contracts and deliver their products or services on a timely basis, or at all. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, operational complications with our contractors. The ability of our contractors to effectively satisfy our requirements could also be impacted by such contractors’ financial difficulty or damage to their operations caused by fire, terrorist attack, natural disaster, pandemic, such as the current COVID-19 outbreak, or other events. The failure of any contractors to perform to our expectations could result in shortages of certain manufacturing or operational components for our spacecraft or delays in spaceflights and harm our business. Our reliance on contractors and inability to fully control any operational difficulties with our third-party contractors could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

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We expect to face intense competition in the commercial spaceflight industry and other industries in which we may develop products.

The commercial spaceflight industry is still developing and evolving, but we expect it to be highly competitive. Currently, our primary competitor in establishing a commercial suborbital spaceflight offering is Blue Origin, a privately funded company founded in 2000. In addition, we are aware of several large, well-funded, public and private entities actively engaged in developing products within the aerospace industry, including SpaceX and Boeing. While these companies are currently focused on providing orbital spaceflight transportation to government agencies, a fundamentally different product from ours, we cannot assure you that one or more of these companies will not shift their focus to include suborbital spaceflight and directly compete with us in the future. We may also explore the application of our proprietary technologies for other uses, such as high-speed point-to-point travel, where the industry is even earlier in its development.

Many of our current and potential competitors are larger and have substantially greater resources than we have and expect to have in the future. They may also be able to devote greater resources to the development of their current and future technologies or the promotion and sale of their offerings, or offer lower prices. Our current and potential competitors may also establish cooperative or strategic relationships amongst themselves or with third parties that may further enhance their resources and offerings. Further, it is possible that domestic or foreign companies or governments, some with greater experience in the aerospace industry or greater financial resources than we possess, will seek to provide products or services that compete directly or indirectly with ours in the future. Any such foreign competitor, for example, could benefit from subsidies from, or other protective measures by, its home country.

We believe our ability to compete successfully as a commercial provider of human spaceflight does and will depend on a number of factors, which may change in the future due to increased competition, including the price of our offerings, consumer confidence in the safety of our offerings, consumer satisfaction for the experiences we offer, and the frequency and availability of our offerings. If we are unable to compete successfully, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

Our investments in developing new offerings and technologies and exploring the application of our existing proprietary technologies for other uses and those offerings, technologies or opportunities may never materialize.

While our primary focus for the foreseeable future will be on commercializing human spaceflight, we have invested certain of our resources in developing new technologies, services, products and offerings, such as high speed point-to-point travel and programs related to orbital spaceflight, and expect that we may invest a more significant amount of resources to those purposes in the future. However, we may not realize the expected benefits of these investments. These anticipated technologies, services, products and offerings are unproven and subject to significant continued design and development efforts, may take longer than anticipated to materialize, if at all, and may never be commercialized in a way that would allow us to generate revenue from the sale of these technologies, services, products and offerings. Relatedly, if such technologies become viable offerings in the future, we may be subject to competition, some of which may have substantially greater monetary and knowledge resources than we have and expect to have in the future to devote to the development of these technologies. We may

also seek to expand the application of our existing proprietary technology in new and unproven offerings. Further, under the terms of an amended and restated trademark license agreement (the “Amended TMLA”), our ability to operationalize some of the technologies may be dependent upon the consent of VEL. Such competition or any limitations on our ability to take advantage of such technologies could impact our market share, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

Such research and development initiatives may also have a high degree of risk and involve unproven business strategies and technologies with which we have limited operating or development experience. They may involve claims and liabilities (including, but not limited to, personal injury claims), expenses, regulatory challenges and other risks that we may not be able to anticipate. There can be no assurance that consumer demand for such initiatives will exist or be sustained at the levels that we anticipate, or that any of these initiatives will gain sufficient traction or market acceptance to generate sufficient revenue to offset any new expenses or liabilities associated with these new investments. Further, any such research and development efforts could distract management from current operations, and would divert capital and other resources from our more established offerings and technologies. Even if we were to be successful in developing new products, services, offerings or technologies, regulatory authorities may subject us to new rules or restrictions in response to our innovations that may increase our expenses or prevent us from successfully commercializing new products, services, offerings or technologies.

The “Virgin” brand is not under our control, and negative publicity related to the Virgin brand name could materially adversely affect our business.

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We possess certain exclusive and non-exclusive rights to use the name and brand “Virgin Galactic” and the Virgin signature logo pursuant to the Amended TMLA. We believe the “Virgin” brand, is integral to our corporate identity and represents quality, innovation, creativity, fun, a sense of competitive challenge and employee-friendliness. We expect to rely on the general goodwill of consumers and our pilots and employees towards the Virgin brand as part of our internal corporate culture and external marketing strategy. The Virgin brand is also licensed to and used by a number of other companies unrelated to us and in a variety of industries, and the integrity and strength of the Virgin brand will depend in large part on the efforts and the licensor and any other licensees of the Virgin brand and how the brand is used, promoted and protected by them, which will be outside of our control. Consequently, any adverse publicity in relation to the Virgin brand name or its principals, or in relation to another Virgin-branded company over which we have no control or influence, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

If we fail to adequately protect our proprietary intellectual property rights, our competitive position could be impaired and we may lose valuable assets, generate reduced revenue and incur costly litigation to protect our rights.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to protect our proprietary intellectual property rights, including certain methodologies, practices, tools, technologies and technical expertise we utilize in designing, developing, implementing and maintaining applications and processes used in our spaceflight systems and related technologies. To date, we have relied primarily on trade secrets and other intellectual property laws, non-disclosure agreements with our employees, consultants and other relevant persons and other measures to protect our intellectual property, and intend to continue to rely on these and other means, including patent protection, in the future. However, the steps we take to protect our intellectual property may be inadequate, and we may choose not to pursue or maintain protection for our intellectual property in the United States or foreign jurisdictions. We will not be able to protect our intellectual property if we are unable to enforce our rights or if we do not detect unauthorized use of our intellectual property. Despite our precautions, it may be possible for unauthorized third parties to copy our technology and use information that we regard as proprietary to create technology that competes with ours.

Further, the laws of some countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and mechanisms for enforcement of intellectual property rights in some foreign countries may be inadequate. To the extent we expand our international activities, our exposure to unauthorized copying and use of our technologies and proprietary information may increase. Accordingly, despite our efforts, we may be unable to prevent third parties from infringing upon, misappropriating or otherwise violating our technology and intellectual property.

We rely in part on trade secrets, proprietary know-how and other confidential information to maintain our competitive position. Although we enter into non-disclosure and invention assignment agreements with our employees, enter into non-disclosure agreements with our future astronauts, consultants and other parties with whom we have strategic relationships and business alliances and enter into intellectual property assignment agreements with our consultants and vendors, no assurance can be given that these agreements will be effective in controlling access to and distribution of our technology and proprietary information. Further, these agreements do not prevent our competitors from independently developing technologies that are substantially equivalent or superior to our products.

We rely on licenses from third parties for intellectual property that is critical to our business, and we would lose the rights to use such intellectual property if those agreements were terminated or not renewed.

We rely on licenses from third parties for certain intellectual property that is critical to our branding and corporate identity, as well as the technology used in our spacecraft. Termination of our current or future license agreements could cause us to have to negotiate new or restated agreements with less favorable terms or cause us to lose our rights under the original agreements.

In the case of our branding, we will not own the Virgin brand or any other Virgin-related assets, as we will license the right to use the Virgin brand pursuant to the Amended TMLA. Virgin controls the Virgin brand, and the integrity and strength of the Virgin brand will depend in large part on the efforts and businesses of Virgin and the other licensees of the Virgin brand and how the brand is used, promoted and protected by them, which will be outside of our control. For example, negative publicity or events affecting or occurring at Virgin or other entities who use the Virgin brand, including transportation companies and/or other entities unrelated to us that presently or in the future may license the Virgin brand, may negatively impact the public’s perception of us, which may have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, liquidity and prospects.

In addition, there are certain circumstances under which the Amended TMLA may be terminated in its entirety, including our material breach of the Amended TMLA (subject to a cure period, if applicable), our insolvency, our improper use of the Virgin brand, our failure to commercially launch a spaceflight for paying passengers by a specified date, if we are unable to

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undertake any commercial flights for paying passengers for a specified period (other than in connection with addressing a significant safety issue), and our undergoing of a change of control to an unsuitable buyer, including a competitor of VEL’s group. Termination of the Amended TMLA would eliminate our rights to use the Virgin brand and may result in our having to negotiate a new or reinstated agreement with less favorable terms or cause us to lose our rights under the Amended TMLA, including our right to use the Virgin brand, which would require us to change our corporate name and undergo other significant rebranding efforts. These rebranding efforts may require significant resources and expenses and may affect our ability to attract and retain future astronauts, all of which may have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, liquidity and prospects.

In the case of a loss of technology used in our spaceflight systems, we may not be able to continue to manufacture certain components for our spacecraft or for our operations or may experience disruption to our manufacturing processes as we test and requalify any potential replacement technology. Even if we retain the licenses, the licenses may not be exclusive with respect to such component design or technologies, which could aid our competitors and have a negative impact on our business.

Protecting and defending against intellectual property claims may have a material adverse effect on our business.