Virgin Galactic SWOT and PESTLE Analysis

Strength

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Weakness

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Opportunity

1. Designing supersonic jets will help in securing market: Other than commercial human spaceflight, Virgin Galactic also has a presence in the high-speed commercial aircraft market. In 2020, The Spaceship Company (fully owned subsidiary of Virgin Galactic) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rolls-Royce to collaborate in designing and developing engine propulsion technology for high-speed commercial aircraft. Rolls-Royce is a market leader and powers the only civil-certified commercial aircraft capable of supersonic flight. The aircraft design aims to help lead the way toward use of state-of-the-art sustainable aviation fuel. Previously, NASA had signed a Space Act Agreement with Virgin Galactic to collaborate on high-speed technologies. The market for supersonic aircraft is still at development stages and Virgin Galactic has an edge due to its expertise in high-speed aircraft combined with Virgin Atlantic’s commercial aircraft experience

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Threat

1. Covid 19 pandemic and protocols continue to cause delays in operations: Due to Covid-19, Virgin Galactic initially reduced and then suspended operations in California and Spaceport America, New Mexico. One third of their workforce was unable to perform their duties from home. Even after on-site work resumed to some extent, strict social distancing protocols had to be followed which led to additional costs. The pandemic adversely affected operations and is expected to further delay the completion of spaceflights and subsequent spaceflight tests. Since countries may continue to maintain or reimpose closed borders, the effect of the pandemic cannot be accounted for fully. Moreover, the pandemic has negatively impacted Virgin’s commercial aircraft segment as well, so the spillover effect at Virgin Galactic may impede operations at hand.

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Political

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Economic

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Social

1. Space tourism is a niche market and public in general is not enthusiastic: In a survey by Morning Consult among 2300 adults in the USA, 33 percent people said that sending humans to Mars or the Moon must be an important but lower priority of the Biden Government as compared to other missions like monitoring planet climate. A small percentage of people think space exploration should be a top priority of the government and a lesser percentage would like to explore space themselves, even if the exorbitant price of human spaceflight tickets weren’t a concern. Investing in space research and exploration ranked 25th on a list of 26 priorities for the Biden administration that were included in the survey. When the participants were asked if they would be willing to spend more or less than the price of an average airplane ticket to go to Mars, 53 percent said they were not interested at all in space travel. Given that space travel is likely to cost somewhere in the millions in the recent future, the companies in this market may suffer, if there is not sufficient interest and demand for space tourism.

Technological

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Legal

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Environmental

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