EDGAR 10-K Filing

Company CIK: 1706946
Filing Year: 2021
Filename: 1706946_10-K_2021_0001706946-21-000022.json

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ITEM 1. BUSINESS
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.
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
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.
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.
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:
•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;
◦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
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.
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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.
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:
•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
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.
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
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
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
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Our success depends in part upon successful prosecution, maintenance, enforcement and protection of our owned and licensed intellectual property, including the Virgin brand and other intellectual property that we license from Virgin under the Amended TMLA. Under the terms of the Amended TMLA, Virgin has the primary right to take actions to obtain, maintain, enforce and protect the Virgin brand. If, following our written request, Virgin elects to not take an action to maintain, enforce or protect the Virgin brand, we may do so, at our expense, subject to various conditions including that so long as doing so would not have a material adverse effect on Virgin, any of Virgin’s other licensees or the Virgin brand and we reasonably believe failing to do so would materially adversely affect our business. Should Virgin determine not to maintain, enforce or protect the Virgin brand, we and/or the Virgin brand could be materially harmed and we could incur substantial cost if we elect to take any such action.
To protect our intellectual property rights, we may be required to spend significant resources to monitor and protect these rights. Litigation may be necessary in the future to enforce our intellectual property rights and to protect our trade secrets. Such litigation could be costly, time consuming and distracting to management and could result in the impairment or loss of portions of our intellectual property. Furthermore, our efforts to enforce our intellectual property rights may be met with defenses, counterclaims and countersuits attacking the validity and enforceability of our intellectual property rights. Our inability to protect our proprietary technology, as well as any costly litigation or diversion of our management’s attention and resources, could disrupt our business, as well as have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations. The results of intellectual property litigation are difficult to predict and may require us to stop using certain technologies or offering certain services or may result in significant damage awards or settlement costs. There is no guarantee that any action to defend, maintain or enforce our owned or licensed intellectual property rights will be successful, and an adverse result in any such proceeding could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition, operating results and prospects.
In addition, we may from time to time face allegations that we are infringing, misappropriating or otherwise violating the intellectual property rights of third parties, including the intellectual property rights of our competitors. We may be unaware of the intellectual property rights that others may claim cover some or all of our technology or services. Irrespective of the validity of any such claims, we could incur significant costs and diversion of resources in defending against them, and there is no guarantee any such defense would be successful, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, contracts, financial condition, operating results, liquidity and prospects.
Even if these matters do not result in litigation or are resolved in our favor or without significant cash settlements, these matters, and the time and resources necessary to litigate or resolve them, could divert the time and resources of our management team and harm our business, our operating results and our reputation.
We have government customers, which subjects us to risks including early termination, audits, investigations, sanctions and penalties.
We derive limited revenue from contracts with NASA and the U.S. government and may enter into further contracts with the U.S. or foreign governments in the future, and this subjects us to statutes and regulations applicable to companies doing business with the government, including the Federal Acquisition Regulation. These government contracts customarily contain provisions that give the government substantial rights and remedies, many of which are not typically found in commercial contracts and which are unfavorable to contractors. For instance, most U.S. government agencies include provisions that allow the government to unilaterally terminate or modify contracts for convenience, and in that event, the counterparty to the contract
may generally recover only its incurred or committed costs and settlement expenses and profit on work completed prior to the termination. If the government terminates a contract for default, the defaulting party may be liable for any extra costs incurred by the government in procuring undelivered items from another source.
Some of our federal government contracts are subject to the approval of appropriations being made by the U.S. Congress to fund the expenditures under these contracts. In addition, government contracts normally contain additional requirements that may increase our costs of doing business, reduce our profits, and expose us to liability for failure to comply with these terms and conditions. These requirements include, for example:
•specialized disclosure and accounting requirements unique to government contracts;
•financial and compliance audits that may result in potential liability for price adjustments, recoupment of government funds after such funds have been spent, civil and criminal penalties, or administrative sanctions such as suspension or debarment from doing business with the U.S. government;
•public disclosures of certain contract and company information; and
•mandatory socioeconomic compliance requirements, including labor requirements, non-discrimination and affirmative action programs and environmental compliance requirements.
Government contracts are also generally subject to greater scrutiny by the government, which can initiate reviews, audits and investigations regarding our compliance with government contract requirements. In addition, if we fail to comply with government contract laws, regulations and contract requirements, our contracts may be subject to termination, and we may be subject to financial and/or other liability under our contracts, the Federal Civil False Claims Act (including treble damages and other penalties), or criminal law. In particular, the False Claims Act’s “whistleblower” provisions also allow private individuals, including present and former employees, to sue on behalf of the U.S. government. Any penalties, damages, fines, suspension, or damages could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.
If we commercialize outside the United States, we will be exposed to a variety of risks associated with international operations that could materially and adversely affect our business.
As part of our growth strategy, we may leverage our initial U.S. operations to expand internationally. In that event, we expect that we would be subject to additional risks related to entering into international business relationships, including:
•restructuring our operations to comply with local regulatory regimes;
•identifying, hiring and training highly skilled personnel;
•unexpected changes in tariffs, trade barriers and regulatory requirements;
•economic weakness, including inflation, or political instability in foreign economies and markets;
•compliance with tax, employment, immigration and labor laws for employees living or traveling abroad;
•foreign taxes, including withholding of payroll taxes;
•the need for U.S. government approval to operate our spaceflight systems outside the United States;
•foreign currency fluctuations, which could result in increased operating expenses and reduced revenue;
•government appropriation of assets;
•workforce uncertainty in countries where labor unrest is more common than in the United States; and
•disadvantages of competing against companies from countries that are not subject to U.S. laws and regulations, including anti-corruption laws and anti-money laundering regulations, as well as exposure of our foreign operations to liability under these regulatory regimes.
We could suffer increased costs, exposure to significant liability, reputational harm and other serious negative consequences if we sustain cyber-attacks or other data security breaches that disrupt our operations or result in the dissemination of proprietary or confidential information about us or our customers, suppliers or other third parties.
We manage and store proprietary information and sensitive or confidential data relating to our operations. We may be subject to cyber-attacks on and breaches of the information technology systems we use for these purposes. If we are unable to protect sensitive information, including complying with evolving information security and data protection/privacy regulations, our customers or governmental authorities could question the adequacy of our threat mitigation and detection processes and procedures.
Experienced computer programmers and hackers may be able to penetrate our network security and misappropriate or compromise our confidential information or that of third parties, create system disruptions or cause shutdowns. Computer programmers and hackers also may be able to develop and deploy viruses, worms, malware, ransomware and other malicious software programs that attack our systems or otherwise exploit any security vulnerabilities of our systems or products. In addition, sophisticated hardware and operating system software and applications that we produce or procure from third parties may contain defects in design or manufacture, including “bugs” and other problems that could unexpectedly interfere with the operation of our systems. Cyber-threats in particular vary in technique and sources, are persistent, frequently change and increasingly are more sophisticated, targeted and difficult to detect and prevent against.
Given the rapidly evolving nature and proliferation of cyber threats, there can be no assurance that our employee training, operational and other technical security measures or other controls will detect, prevent or remediate security or data breaches in a timely manner or otherwise prevent unauthorized access to, damage to, or interruption of our systems and operations. We are likely to face attempted cyber-attacks in the future. Accordingly, we may be vulnerable to losses associated with the improper functioning, security breach or unavailability of our information systems as well as any systems used in acquired operations.
In addition, breaches of our security measures and the unapproved use or disclosure of proprietary information or sensitive or confidential data about us or our suppliers, customers or other third parties could expose us or any such affected third party to a risk of loss or misuse of this information, result in litigation and potential liability for us, damage our brand and reputation or otherwise harm our business, even if we were not responsible for the breach. Furthermore, we are exposed to additional risks because we rely in certain capacities on third-party data management and cloud service providers with possible security problems and security vulnerabilities beyond our control. Media or other reports of perceived security vulnerabilities to our systems or those of our third-party suppliers, even if no breach has been attempted or occurred, could adversely impact our brand and reputation and materially impact our business.
Given increasing cyber security threats, there can be no assurance that we will not experience business interruptions, data loss, ransom, misappropriation or corruption or theft or misuse of proprietary information or related litigation and investigation, any of which could have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and results of operations and harm our business reputation.
The costs related to cyber or other security threats or disruptions may not be fully insured or indemnified by other means. Our disclosure controls and procedures address cybersecurity and include elements intended to ensure that there is an analysis of potential disclosure obligations arising from security breaches.
Our business is subject to a wide variety of extensive and evolving government laws and regulations. Failure to comply with such laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business.
We are subject to a wide variety of laws and regulations relating to various aspects of our business, including with respect to our spaceflight system operations, employment and labor, health care, tax, privacy and data security, health and safety, and environmental issues. Laws and regulations at the foreign, federal, state and local levels frequently change, especially in relation to new and emerging industries, and we cannot always reasonably predict the impact from, or the ultimate cost of compliance with, current or future regulatory or administrative changes. We monitor these developments and devote a significant amount of management’s time and external resources towards compliance with these laws, regulations and guidelines, and such compliance places a significant burden on management’s time and other resources, and it may limit our ability to expand into certain jurisdictions. Moreover, changes in law, the imposition of new or additional regulations or the enactment of any new or more stringent legislation that impacts our business could require us to change the way we operate and could have a material adverse effect on our sales, profitability, cash flows and financial condition.
Failure to comply with these laws, such as with respect to obtaining and maintaining licenses, certificates, authorizations and permits critical for the operation of our business, may result in civil penalties or private lawsuits, or the suspension or revocation of licenses, certificates, authorizations or permits, which would prevent us from operating our business. For example, commercial space launches, reentry of our spacecraft and the operation of our spaceflight system in the United States require licenses and permits from certain agencies of the Department of Transportation, including the FAA, and review by other agencies of the U.S. Government, including the Department of Defense, Department of State, NASA, and Federal
Communications Commission. License approval includes an interagency review of safety, operational, national security, and foreign policy and international obligations implications, as well as a review of foreign ownership. In 2016, the FAA granted us our commercial space launch license with a limited number of verification and validation steps that we must complete before we can include future astronauts on our spaceflights. While we are in the process of completing those steps, which includes submission to the FAA of final integrated vehicle performance results conducted in an operational flight environment, delays in FAA action allowing us to conduct spaceflights with future astronauts on board imposed by the agency could adversely affect our ability to operate our business and our financial results.
Additionally, the FAA and other state government agencies also enforce informed consent and cross-waiver requirements for spaceflight participants and have the authority to regulate training and medical requirements for crew. Certain related federal and state laws provide for indemnification or immunity in the event of certain losses. However, this indemnification is subject to limits, and money to be used for indemnification under federal laws is still subject to appropriation by Congress. Furthermore, no such claim regarding the immunity provided by these informed consent provisions has been brought in New Mexico or in federal courts, and we are unable to determine whether the protections provided by applicable laws or regulations would be upheld by U.S. or foreign courts.
Moreover, regulation of our industry is still evolving, and new or different laws or regulations could affect our operations, increase direct compliance costs for us or cause any third-party suppliers or contractors to raise the prices they charge us because of increased compliance costs. For example, the FAA has an open notice of proposed rulemaking relating to commercial space launches, which could affect us and our operations. Application of these laws to our business may negatively impact our performance in various ways, limiting the collaborations we may pursue, further regulating the export and re-export of our products, services, and technology from the United States and abroad, and increasing our costs and the time necessary to obtain required authorization. The adoption of a multi-layered regulatory approach to any one of the laws or regulations to which we are or may become subject, particularly where the layers are in conflict, could require alteration of our manufacturing processes or operational parameters which may adversely impact our business. Potential conflicts between U.S. policy and international law defining the altitude above the earth’s surface where “space” begins and defining the status of, and obligations toward, spaceflight participants could introduce an additional level of legal and commercial complexity. We may not be in complete compliance with all such requirements at all times and, even when we believe we are in complete compliance, a regulatory agency may determine that we are not.
We are subject to stringent U.S. export and import control laws and regulations. Unfavorable changes in these laws and regulations or U.S. government licensing policies, our failure to secure timely U.S. government authorizations under these laws and regulations, or our failure to comply with these laws and regulations could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operation.
Our business is subject to stringent U.S. import and export control laws and regulations as well as economic sanctions laws and regulations. We are required to import and export our products, software, technology and services, as well as run our operations in the United States, in full compliance with such laws and regulations, which include the U.S. Export Administration Regulations, the ITAR, and economic sanctions administered by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Controls. Similar laws that impact our business exist in other jurisdictions. These foreign trade controls prohibit, restrict, or regulate our ability to, directly or indirectly, export, deemed export, re-export, deemed re-export or transfer certain hardware, technical data, technology, software, or services to certain countries and territories, entities, and individuals, and for end uses. If we are found to be in violation of these laws and regulations, it could result in civil and criminal liabilities, monetary and non-monetary penalties, the loss of export or import privileges, debarment and reputational harm.
Pursuant to these foreign trade control laws and regulations, we are required, among other things, to (i) maintain a registration under the ITAR, (ii) determine the proper licensing jurisdiction and export classification of products, software, and technology, and (iii) obtain licenses or other forms of U.S. government authorization to engage in the conduct of our spaceflight business. The authorization requirements include the need to get permission to release controlled technology to foreign person employees and other foreign persons. Changes in U.S. foreign trade control laws and regulations, or reclassifications of our products or technologies, may restrict our operations. The inability to secure and maintain necessary licenses and other authorizations could negatively impact 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 those necessary to implement U.S. government commitments to multilateral control regimes, may restrict our operations. Given the great discretion the government has in issuing or denying such authorizations to advance U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, there can be no assurance we will be successful in our future efforts to secure and maintain necessary licenses, registrations, or other U.S. government regulatory approvals.
Failure to comply with federal, state and foreign laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, or the expansion of current or the enactment of new laws or regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection, could adversely affect our business and our financial condition.
We collect, store, process, and use personal information and other customer data, including medical information, and we rely in part on third parties that are not directly under our control to manage certain of these operations and to collect, store, process and use payment information. Due to the volume and sensitivity of the personal information and data we and these third parties manage and expect to manage in the future, as well as the nature of our customer base, the security features of our information systems are critical. A variety of federal, state and foreign laws and regulations govern the collection, use, retention, sharing and security of this information. Laws and regulations relating to privacy, data protection and consumer protection are evolving and subject to potentially differing interpretations. These requirements may not be harmonized, may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent from one jurisdiction to another or may conflict with other rules or our practices. As a result, our practices may not have complied or may not comply in the future with all such laws, regulations,
requirements and obligations. For example, in January 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) took effect, which provides new data privacy rights for consumers in California and new operational requirements for companies doing business in California. Compliance with the new obligations imposed by the CCPA depends in part on how particular regulators interpret and apply them. If we fail to comply with the CCPA or if regulators assert that we have failed to comply with the CCPA, we may be subject to certain fines or other penalties.
We expect that new industry standards, laws and regulations will continue to be proposed regarding privacy, data protection and information security in many jurisdictions, including the California Consumer Privacy Act , and the European e-Privacy Regulation, which is currently in draft form. We cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. Complying with these evolving obligations is costly. For instance, expanding definitions and interpretations of what constitutes “personal data” (or the equivalent) within the United States, the European Economic Area (the "EEA") and elsewhere may increase our compliance costs and legal liability.
As we have expanded our international presence, we are also subject to additional privacy rules, many of which, such as the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (the “GDPR”) and national laws supplementing the GDPR, such as in the United Kingdom, are significantly more stringent than those currently enforced in the United States. The law requires companies to meet stringent requirements regarding the handling of personal data of individuals located in the EEA. These more stringent requirements include expanded disclosures to inform future astronauts about how we may use their personal data through external privacy notices, increased controls on profiling future astronauts and increased rights for data subjects (including future astronauts and employees) to access, control and delete their personal data. In addition, there are mandatory data breach notification requirements. The law also includes significant penalties for non-compliance, which may result in monetary penalties of up to the higher of €20.0 million or 4% of a group’s worldwide turnover for the preceding financial year for the most serious violations. The GDPR and other similar regulations require companies to give specific types of notice and informed consent is required for the placement of a cookie or similar technologies on a user’s device for online tracking for behavioral advertising and other purposes and for direct electronic marketing, and the GDPR also imposes additional conditions in order to satisfy such consent, such as a prohibition on prechecked tick boxes and bundled consents, thereby requiring future astronauts to affirmatively consent for a given purpose through separate tick boxes or other affirmative action.
A significant data breach or any failure, or perceived failure, by us to comply with any federal, state or foreign privacy or consumer protection-related laws, regulations or other principles or orders to which we may be subject or other legal obligations relating to privacy or consumer protection could adversely affect our reputation, brand and business, and may result in claims, investigations, proceedings or actions against us by governmental entities or others or other penalties or liabilities or require us to change our operations and/or cease using certain data sets. Depending on the nature of the information compromised, we may also have obligations to notify users, law enforcement or payment companies about the incident and may need to provide some form of remedy, such as refunds, for the individuals affected by the incident.
Failures in our technology infrastructure could damage our business, reputation and brand and substantially harm our business and results of operations.
If our main data center were to fail, or if we were to suffer an interruption or degradation of services at our main data center, we could lose important manufacturing and technical data, which could harm our business. Our facilities are vulnerable to damage or interruption from earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, terrorist attacks, power losses, telecommunications failures and similar events. In the event that our or any third-party provider’s systems or service abilities are hindered by any of the events discussed above, our ability to operate may be impaired. A decision to close the facilities without adequate notice, or other unanticipated problems, could adversely impact our operations. Any of the aforementioned risks may be augmented if our or any third-party provider’s business continuity and disaster recovery plans prove to be inadequate. Our data center, third-party
cloud, and managed service provider infrastructure also could be subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, other misconduct, or other unforeseeable events impacting availability of infrastructure technology services. Significant unavailability of our services could cause users to cease using our services and materially and adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition and results of operations.
We use complex proprietary software in our technology infrastructure, which we seek to continually update and improve. Replacing such systems is often time-consuming and expensive, and can also be intrusive to daily business operations. Further, we may not always be successful in executing these upgrades and improvements, which may occasionally result in a failure of our systems. We may experience periodic system interruptions from time to time. Any slowdown or failure of our underlying technology infrastructure could harm our business, reputation and ability to acquire and serve our future astronauts, which could materially adversely affect our results of operations. Our disaster recovery plan or those of our third-party providers may be inadequate, and our business interruption insurance may not be sufficient to compensate us for the losses that could occur.
We are highly dependent on our senior management team and other highly skilled personnel, and if we are not successful in attracting or retaining highly qualified personnel, we may not be able to successfully implement our business strategy.
Our success depends, in significant part, on the continued services of our senior management team and on our ability to attract, motivate, develop and retain a sufficient number of other highly skilled personnel, including pilots, manufacturing and quality assurance, engineering, design, finance, marketing, sales and support personnel. Our senior management team has extensive experience in the aerospace industry, and we believe that their depth of experience is instrumental to our continued success. The loss of any one or more members of our senior management team, for any reason, including resignation or retirement, could impair our ability to execute our business strategy and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Competition for qualified highly skilled personnel can be strong, and we can provide no assurance that we will be successful in attracting or retaining such personnel now or in the future. We have not yet started commercial spaceflight operations, and our estimates of the required team size to support our estimated flight rates may require increases in staffing levels that may require significant capital expenditure. Further, any inability to recruit, develop and retain qualified employees may result in high employee turnover and may force us to pay significantly higher wages, which may harm our profitability. Additionally, we do not carry key man insurance for any of our management executives, and the loss of any key employee or our inability to recruit, develop and retain these individuals as needed, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We are subject to many hazards and operational risks that can disrupt our business, including interruptions or disruptions in service at our primary facilities, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Our operations are subject to many hazards and operational risks inherent to our business, including general business risks, product liability and damage to third parties, our infrastructure or properties that may be caused by fires, floods and other natural disasters, power losses, telecommunications failures, terrorist attacks, human errors and similar events. Additionally, our manufacturing operations are hazardous at times and may expose us to safety risks, including environmental risks and health and safety hazards to our employees or third parties.
Moreover, our commercial spaceflight operations were recently moved to operate entirely out of a single facility, Spaceport America, in New Mexico, and our manufacturing operations are based in Mojave, California. Any significant interruption due to any of the above hazards and operational to the manufacturing or operation of our spaceflight systems at one of our primary facilities, including from weather conditions, growth constraints, performance by third-party providers (such as electric, utility or telecommunications providers), failure to properly handle and use hazardous materials, failure of computer systems, power supplies, fuel supplies, infrastructure damage, disagreements with the owners of the land on which our facilities are located, or damage sustained to our runway could result in manufacturing delays or the delay or cancellation of our spaceflights and, as a result, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
In addition, Spaceport America is run by a state agency, the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, and there may be delays or impacts to operations due to considerations unique to doing business with a government agency. For example, governmental agencies often have an extended approval process for service contracts, which may result in delays or limit the timely operation of our Spaceport America facilities.
Moreover, our insurance coverage may be inadequate to cover our liabilities related to such hazards or operational risks. In addition, passenger insurance may not be accepted or may be prohibitive to procure. Moreover, we may not be able to maintain adequate insurance in the future at rates we consider reasonable and commercially justifiable, and insurance may not continue to be available on terms as favorable as our current arrangements. The occurrence of a significant uninsured claim, or a claim in excess of the insurance coverage limits maintained by us, could harm our business, financial condition and results of operations.
Natural disasters, unusual weather conditions, epidemic outbreaks, terrorist acts and political events could disrupt our business and flight schedule.
The occurrence of one or more natural disasters such as tornadoes, hurricanes, fires, floods and earthquakes, unusual weather conditions, epidemic or pandemic outbreaks, terrorist attacks or disruptive political events in certain regions where our facilities are located, or where our third-party contractors’ and suppliers’ facilities are located, could adversely affect our business. Natural disasters including tornados, hurricanes, floods and earthquakes may damage our facilities or those of our suppliers, which could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Severe weather, such as rainfall, snowfall or extreme temperatures, may impact the ability for spaceflight to occur as planned, resulting in additional expense to reschedule the operation and customer travel plans, thereby reducing our sales and profitability. Terrorist attacks, actual or threatened acts of war or the escalation of current hostilities, or any other military or trade disruptions impacting our domestic or foreign suppliers of components of our products, may impact our operations by, among other things, causing supply chain disruptions and increases in commodity prices, which could adversely affect our raw materials or transportation costs. These events also could cause or act to prolong an economic recession or depression in the United States or abroad, such as the current business disruption and related financial impact resulting from the global COVID-19 health crisis. To the extent these events also impact one or more of our suppliers or contractors or result in the closure of any of their facilities or our facilities, we may be unable to maintain spaceflight schedules, provide other support functions to our astronaut experience or fulfill our other contracts. In addition, the disaster recovery and business continuity plans we have in place currently are limited and are unlikely to prove adequate in the event of a serious disaster or similar event. We may incur substantial expenses as a result of the limited nature of our disaster recovery and business continuity
plans and, more generally, any of these events could cause consumer confidence and spending to decrease, which could adversely impact our commercial spaceflight operations.
Our failure to maintain an effective system of internal control over financial reporting could result in loss of investor confidence and adversely impact our stock price.
We previously reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, a material weakness in our internal control over financial reporting related to a lack of a sufficient number of personnel to execute, review and approve all aspects of the financial statement close and reporting process, which led to a second material weakness resulting from the need to augment our information technology and application controls in our financial reporting. During 2020, we completed the remediation measures related to the material weakness and concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020.
Effective internal control over financial reporting can provide only reasonable assurance with respect to the preparation and fair presentation of financial statements and may not prevent or detect misstatements because of inherent limitations. These limitations include, among others, the possibility of human error, inadequacy or circumvention of controls and fraud. Additionally, remediation of prior material weaknesses does not assure continued effectiveness of our internal controls. If we are unable to maintain effective internal control over financial reporting, our ability to record, process and report financial information timely and accurately could be adversely affected, which could subject us to litigation or investigations, require management resources, increase our expenses, negatively affect investor confidence in our financial statements and adversely impact our stock price.
Our operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes our future operating results difficult to predict and could cause our operating results to fall below expectations or any guidance we may provide.
Our quarterly and annual operating results may fluctuate significantly, which makes it difficult for us to predict our future operating results. These fluctuations may occur due to a variety of factors, many of which are outside of our control, including:
•the number of flights we schedule for a period, the number of seats we are able to sell in any given spaceflight and the price at which we sell them;
•unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, natural disasters or other events that force us to cancel or reschedule flights;
•the cost of raw materials or supplied components critical for the manufacture and operation of our spaceflight system;
•the timing and cost of, and level of investment in, research and development relating to our technologies and our current or future facilities;
•developments involving our competitors;
•changes in governmental regulations or in the status of our regulatory approvals or applications;
•future accounting pronouncements or changes in our accounting policies;
•the impact of epidemics or pandemics, including current business disruption and related financial impact resulting from the global COVID-19 health crisis; and
•general market conditions and other factors, including factors unrelated to our operating performance or the operating performance of our competitors.
The individual or cumulative effects of factors discussed above could result in large fluctuations and unpredictability in our quarterly and annual operating results. As a result, comparing our operating results on a period-to-period basis may not be meaningful.
This variability and unpredictability could also result in our failing to meet the expectations of industry or financial analysts or investors for any period. If our revenue or operating results fall below the expectations of analysts or investors or below any guidance we may provide, or if the guidance we provide is below the expectations of analysts or investors, the price of our common stock could decline substantially. Such a stock price decline could occur even when we have met any previously publicly stated guidance we may provide.
The historical financial results of our financial information included elsewhere in this report may not be indicative of what our actual financial position or results of operations would have been.
The historical financial results included in this report for our company prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination do not necessarily reflect the financial condition, results of operations or cash flows we would have achieved as a standalone company during the periods presented or that we will achieve in the future. This is primarily the result of the following factors:
•the VG Companies’ historical financial results reflect charges for certain support functions that are now provided to us under the transition services agreements that we entered into in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination;
•the VG Companies’ historical financial results reflect charges for the use of certain intellectual property licensed from Virgin under a prior trademark license agreement, which was replaced with the Amended TMLA in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination;
•we have only recently started incurring, and will continue to incur, additional ongoing costs as a result of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, including costs related to public company reporting, investor relations and compliance with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act; and
•our capital structure is different from that reflected in the historical financial statements prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination.
We are subject to environmental regulation and may incur substantial costs.
We are subject to federal, state, local and foreign laws, regulations and ordinances relating to the protection of the environment, including those relating to emissions to the air, discharges to surface and subsurface waters, safe drinking water, greenhouse gases and the management of hazardous substances, oils and waste materials. Federal, state and local laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment may require a current or previous owner or operator of real estate to investigate and remediate hazardous or toxic substances or petroleum product releases at or from the property. Under federal law, generators of waste materials, and current and former owners or operators of facilities, can be subject to liability for investigation and remediation costs at locations that have been identified as requiring response actions. Compliance with environmental laws and regulations can require significant expenditures. In addition, we could incur costs to comply with such current or future laws and regulations, the violation of which could lead to substantial fines and penalties.
We may have to pay governmental entities or third parties for property damage and for investigation and remediation costs that they incurred in connection with any contamination at our current and former properties without regard to whether we knew of or caused the presence of the contaminants. Liability under these laws may be strict, joint and several, meaning that we could be liable for the costs of cleaning up environmental contamination regardless of fault or the amount of waste directly attributable to us. Even if more than one person may have been responsible for the contamination, each person covered by these environmental laws may be held responsible for all of the clean-up costs incurred. Environmental liabilities could arise and have a material adverse effect on our financial condition and performance. We do not believe, however, that pending environmental regulatory developments in this area will have a material effect on our capital expenditures or otherwise materially adversely affect its operations, operating costs, or competitive position.
Risks Related to Our Ownership Structure
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.
Pursuant to the terms of the stockholders' agreement entered in connection with the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination (the "Stockholders’ Agreement"), we are required to take all necessary action to cause the specified designees of Virgin Investments Limited (“VIL”) and Chamath Palihapitiya, the chairman of our board of directors, to be nominated to serve on our board of directors, and each of the holders that is party to the Stockholders’ Agreement is required, among other things, to vote all of our securities held by such party in a manner necessary to elect the individuals designated by such holders. For so long as these parties hold a substantial amount of our common stock, they will be able to effectively control the composition of our board of directors, which in turn will be able to control all matters affecting us, subject to the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement, including:
•any determination with respect to our business direction and policies, including the appointment and removal of officers and, in the event of a vacancy on our board of directors, additional or replacement directors;
•any determinations with respect to mergers, business combinations or disposition of assets;
•determination of our management policies;
•our financing policy;
•our compensation and benefit programs and other human resources policy decisions; and
•the payment of dividends on our common stock.
Additionally, VIL has a contractual right to be able to influence the outcome of corporate actions so long as it owns a significant portion of our total outstanding shares of common stock. Specifically, under the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement, for so long as VIL and Aabar Space, Inc. (“Aabar”) continue to beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least 25% of the shares of our common stock that an affiliate of VIL beneficially owned upon completion of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, VIL’s consent is required for, among other things:
•any non-ordinary course sales of our assets having a fair market value of at least $10.0 million;
•any acquisition of an entity, or the business or assets of any other entity, having a fair market value of at least $10.0 million;
•certain non-ordinary course investments having a fair market value of at least $10.0 million;
•any increase or decrease in the size of our board of directors;
•any payment by us of dividends or distributions to our stockholders or repurchases of stock by us, subject to certain limited exceptions; or
•incurrence of certain indebtedness.
Furthermore, VIL’s consent is also required for the following, among other things, for so long as VIL and Aabar continue to beneficially own, in the aggregate, at least 10% of the shares of our common stock that an affiliate of VIL beneficially owned upon completion of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination:
•any sale, merger, business combination or similar transaction to which we are a party;
•any amendment, modification or waiver of any provision of our certificate of incorporation or bylaws;
•any liquidation, dissolution, winding-up or causing any voluntary bankruptcy or related actions with respect to us; or
•any issuance or sale of any shares of our capital stock or securities convertible into or exercisable for any shares of our capital stock in excess of 5% of our then-issued and outstanding shares, other than issuances of shares of capital stock upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our capital stock.
Because the interests of these stockholders may differ from our interests or the interests of our other stockholders, actions that these stockholders take with respect to us may not be favorable to us or our other stockholders.
Delaware law and our organizational documents contain certain provisions, including anti-takeover provisions, that limit the ability of stockholders to take certain actions and could delay or discourage takeover attempts that stockholders may consider favorable.
Our certificate of incorporation and bylaws and Delaware law contain provisions that could have the effect of rendering more difficult, delaying, or preventing an acquisition that stockholders may consider favorable, including transactions in which stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares. These provisions could also limit the price that investors might be willing to pay in the future for shares of our common stock, and therefore depress the trading price of our common stock. These provisions could also make it difficult for stockholders to take certain actions, including electing directors who are not nominated by the current members of our board of directors or taking other corporate actions, including effecting changes in our management. Among other things, our certificate of incorporation and bylaws include provisions regarding:
•the ability of our board of directors to issue shares of preferred stock, including “blank check” preferred stock and to determine the price and other terms of those shares, including preferences and voting rights, without stockholder approval, which could be used to significantly dilute the ownership of a hostile acquirer;
•subject to the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement, our board of directors has the exclusive right to expand the size of the board of directors and to elect directors to fill a vacancy created by the expansion of the board of directors or the resignation, death or removal of a director, which will prevent stockholders from being able to fill vacancies on the board of directors;
•the prohibition of cumulative voting in the election of directors, which limits the ability of minority stockholders to elect director candidates;
•the limitation of the liability of, and the indemnification of, our directors and officers;
•the ability of our board of directors to amend the bylaws, which may allow our board of directors to take additional actions to prevent an unsolicited takeover and inhibit the ability of an acquirer to amend the bylaws to facilitate an unsolicited takeover attempt;
•advance notice procedures with which stockholders must comply to nominate candidates to our board of directors or to propose matters to be acted upon at a stockholders’ meeting, which could preclude stockholders from bringing matters before annual or special meetings of stockholders and delay changes in our board of directors and also may discourage or deter a potential acquirer from conducting a solicitation of proxies to elect the acquirer’s own slate of directors or otherwise attempting to obtain control of our company; and
•expansive negative consent rights for VIL, provided that VIL and Aabar continue to beneficially own specified amounts of our common stock as specified under the Stockholders’ Agreement, for us to enter into certain business combinations or related transactions.
These provisions, alone or together, could delay or prevent hostile takeovers and changes in control or changes in our board of directors or management.
The provisions of our certificate of incorporation requiring exclusive forum in the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware for certain types of lawsuits may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, and unless we consent in writing to the selection of an alternative forum, the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware will be the sole and exclusive forum for (i) any derivative action or proceeding brought on our behalf, (ii) any action asserting a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty owed by any of our directors, officers, employees or agents to us or our stockholders, (iii) any action asserting a claim against us or
any of our directors, officers, stockholders, employees or agents arising out of or related to any provision of the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware or our certificate of incorporation or bylaws or (iv) any action asserting a claim against us or any of our directors, officers, stockholders, employees or agents governed by the internal affairs doctrine; provided, however, that, in the event that the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware lacks subject matter jurisdiction over any such action or proceeding, the sole and exclusive forum for such action or proceeding will be another state or federal court located within the State of Delaware, in each such case, unless the Court of Chancery (or such other state or federal court located within the State of Delaware, as applicable) has dismissed a prior action by the same plaintiff asserting the same claims because such court lacked personal jurisdiction over an indispensable party named as a defendant therein. Notwithstanding the foregoing, our certificate of incorporation provides that the exclusive forum provision will not apply to suits brought to enforce a duty or liability created by the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), or the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), or any other claim for which the federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction.
These provisions may have the effect of discouraging lawsuits against our directors and officers. The enforceability of similar choice of forum provisions in other companies’ certificates of incorporation has been challenged in legal proceedings, and it is possible that, in connection with any applicable action brought against us, a court could find the choice of forum provisions contained in the certificate of incorporation to be inapplicable or unenforceable in such action.
Our certificate of incorporation limits liability of Vieco US and Mr. Palihapitiya and their respective affiliates’ liability, including VIL, to us for breach of fiduciary duty and could also prevent us from benefiting from corporate opportunities that might otherwise have been available to us.
Our certificate of incorporation provides that, to the fullest extent permitted by law, and other than corporate opportunities that are expressly presented to one of our directors in his or her capacity as such, Vieco US and its respective affiliates (including VIL) and Mr. Palihapitiya and his respective affiliates (but in each case, other than us and our officers and employees):
•will not have any fiduciary duty to refrain from engaging in the same or similar business activities or lines of business as us, even if the opportunity is one that we might reasonably be deemed to have pursued or had the ability or desire to pursue if granted the opportunity to do so;
•will have no duty to communicate or offer such business opportunity to us; and
•will not be liable to us for breach of any fiduciary or other duty, as a director or officer or otherwise, by reason of the fact that such exempted person pursues or acquires such business opportunity, directs such business opportunity to another person or fails to present such business opportunity, or information regarding such business opportunity, to us.
Risks Related to Our Securities
Future resales of common stock may cause the market price of our securities to drop significantly, even if our business is doing well.
Subject to certain exceptions, pursuant to the registration rights agreement entered in connection with the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination (the “Registration Rights Agreement”), VIL and Aabar are contractually restricted for the first two years following the Virgin Galactic Business Combination from selling or transferring more than 50% of the shares of common stock received by an affiliate of VIL in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, and SCH Sponsor Corp. (the "Sponsor") is contractually restricted for the first two years following the Virgin Galactic Business Combination from selling or transferring any of the shares of common stock held by it after the Virgin Galactic Business Combination. However, following the expiration of such lockup, none of those parties will be restricted from selling shares of our common stock held by them, other than by applicable securities laws. As such, sales of a substantial number of shares of our common stock in the public market could occur at any time. These sales, or the perception in the market that the holders of a large number of shares intend to sell shares, could reduce the market price of our common stock.
As restrictions on resale end and registration statements for the sale of the shares held by the parties to the Registration Rights Agreement are available for use, the sale or possibility of sale of these shares could have the effect of increasing the volatility in the market price of our common stock, or decreasing the market price itself. In May 2020, pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement, we filed a registration statement relating to the potential future resale from time to time by certain stockholders of the shares of our common stock they own.
We do not intend to pay cash dividends for the foreseeable future.
We currently intend to retain our future earnings, if any, to finance the further development and expansion of our business and do not intend to pay cash dividends in the foreseeable future. Any future determination to pay dividends will be at the
discretion of our board of directors and will depend on our financial condition, results of operations, capital requirements, restrictions contained in the Stockholders’ Agreement and future agreements and financing instruments, business prospects and such other factors as our board of directors deems relevant.
General Risk Factors
The trading price of our common stock may be volatile, and you may be unable to sell your shares above your purchase price.
The trading price of our common stock may fluctuate due to a variety of factors, including:
•changes in the industries in which we operate;
•the number of flights we schedule for a period, the number of seats we are able to sell in any given spaceflight and the price at which we sell them;
•developments involving our competitors;
•unexpected weather patterns, maintenance issues, natural disasters or other events that force us to cancel or reschedule flights;
•variations in our operating performance and the performance of our competitors in general;
•actual or anticipated fluctuations in our quarterly or annual operating results;
•publication of research reports by securities analysts about us, our competitors or our industry;
•the public’s reaction to our press releases, public announcements and filings with the SEC;
•additions and departures of key employees and personnel;
•competition for talent and skill-sets required;
•changes in laws and regulations affecting our business;
•commencement of, or involvement in, litigation involving us;
•changes in our capital structure, such as future issuances of securities or the incurrence of debt;
•investors mistaking developments involving other companies, including Virgin-branded companies, as involving is and our business;
•the volume of shares of our common stock available for public sale;
•short sales of our common stock; and
•general economic and political conditions such as the COVID-19 global health crisis or other pandemics or epidemics, recessions, interest rates, fuel prices, international currency fluctuations, corruption, political instability and acts of war or terrorism.
These market and industry factors may materially reduce the market price of our common stock regardless of our operating performance.
In addition, in the past, class action litigation has often been instituted against companies whose securities have experienced periods of volatility in market price. Securities litigation brought against us following volatility in our stock price, regardless of the merit or ultimate results of such litigation, could result in substantial costs, which would hurt our financial condition and operating results and divert management’s attention and resources from our business.
Any acquisitions, partnerships or joint ventures that we enter into could disrupt our operations and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
From time to time, we may evaluate potential strategic acquisitions of businesses, including partnerships or joint ventures with third parties. We may not be successful in identifying acquisition, partnership and joint venture candidates. In addition, we may not be able to continue the operational success of such businesses or successfully finance or integrate any businesses that we acquire or with which we form a partnership or joint venture. We may have potential write-offs of acquired assets and/or an
impairment of any goodwill recorded as a result of acquisitions. Furthermore, the integration of any acquisition may divert management’s time and resources from our core business and disrupt our operations or may result in conflicts with our business. Any acquisition, partnership or joint venture may not be successful, may reduce our cash reserves, may negatively affect our earnings and financial performance and, to the extent financed with the proceeds of debt, may increase our indebtedness. We cannot ensure that any acquisition, partnership or joint venture we make will not have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.
We may become involved in litigation that may materially adversely affect us.
From time to time, we may become involved in various legal proceedings relating to matters incidental to the ordinary course of our business, including intellectual property, commercial, product liability, employment, class action, whistleblower and other litigation and claims, and governmental and other regulatory investigations and proceedings. Such matters can be time-consuming, divert management’s attention and resources, cause us to incur significant expenses or liability or require us to change our business practices. Because of the potential risks, expenses and uncertainties of litigation, we may, from time to time, settle disputes, even where we believe that we have meritorious claims or defenses. Because litigation is inherently unpredictable, we cannot assure you that the results of any of these actions will not have a material adverse effect on our business.
Changes in tax laws or regulations may increase tax uncertainty and adversely affect results of our operations and our effective tax rate.
We will be subject to taxes in the United States and certain foreign jurisdictions. Due to economic and political conditions, tax rates in various jurisdictions, including the United States, may be subject to change. Our future effective tax rates could be affected by changes in the mix of earnings in countries with differing statutory tax rates, changes in the valuation of deferred tax assets and liabilities and changes in tax laws or their interpretation. In addition, we may be subject to income tax audits by various tax jurisdictions. Although we believe our income tax liabilities are reasonably estimated and accounted for in accordance with applicable laws and principles, an adverse resolution by one or more taxing authorities could have a material impact on the results of our operations.
The obligations associated with being a public company will involve significant expenses and will require significant resources and management attention, which may divert from our business operations.
As a public company, we are subject to the reporting requirements of the Exchange Act and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The Exchange Act requires the filing of annual, quarterly and current reports with respect to a public company’s business and financial condition. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires, among other things, that a public company establish and maintain effective internal control over financial reporting. As a result, we are incurring, and will continue to incur significant legal, accounting and other expenses that the VG Companies did not previously incur. Our management team and many of our other employees will need to devote substantial time to compliance, and may not effectively or efficiently manage its transition into a public company.
An active trading market for our common stock may not be maintained.
We can provide no assurance that we will be able to maintain an active trading market for our common stock on the NYSE or any other exchange in the future. If an active market for our common stock is not maintained, or if we fail to satisfy the continued listing standards of the NYSE for any reason and our securities are delisted, it may be difficult for our security holders to sell their securities without depressing the market price for the securities or at all. An inactive trading market may also impair our ability to both raise capital by selling shares of common stock and acquire other complementary products, technologies or businesses by using our shares of common stock as consideration.
Securities analysts may not publish favorable research or reports about our business or may publish no information at all, which could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.
The trading market for our common stock is influenced to some extent by the research and reports that industry or financial analysts publish about us and our business. We do not control these analysts, and the analysts who publish information about our common stock may have had relatively little experience with us or our industry, which could affect their ability to accurately forecast our results and could make it more likely that we fail to meet their estimates. In the event we obtain securities or industry analyst coverage, if any of the analysts who cover us provide inaccurate or unfavorable research or issue an adverse opinion regarding our stock price, our stock price could decline. If one or more of these analysts cease coverage of
us or fail to publish reports covering us regularly, we could lose visibility in the market, which in turn could cause our stock price or trading volume to decline.

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ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS
Item 1B. Unresolved Staff Comments
None.

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ITEM 2. PROPERTIES
Item 2. Properties
We operate primarily at two locations in California and New Mexico. All of our facilities are located on land that is leased from third parties. We believe that such facilities meet our current and future anticipated needs.
We maintain more than 200,000 square feet of manufacturing and operations facilities at the Mojave Air and Space Port in Mojave, California. This campus includes six main operational buildings and several storage buildings under separate lease agreements that collectively house fabrication, assembly, warehouse, office and test operations. These facilities are leased pursuant to several agreements, which generally have two- or three-year initial terms coupled with renewal options. Several leases are either operating in renewal periods or on a month-to-month basis.
We will conduct our commercial operations at Spaceport America in Sierra County, New Mexico. Located on more than 25 square miles of desert landscape and with access to more than 6,000 square miles of protected airspace, Spaceport America is the world’s first purpose-built commercial spaceport and is home to the Virgin Galactic Gateway to Space terminal. State and local governments in New Mexico have invested more than $200.0 million in Spaceport America, with Virgin Galactic serving as the facility’s anchor tenant under a 20-year lease scheduled to expire in 2028, subject to our right to extend the term for an additional five years.

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ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
We are from time to time subject to various claims, lawsuits and other legal and administrative proceedings arising in the ordinary course of business. Some of these claims, lawsuits and other proceedings may involve highly complex issues that are subject to substantial uncertainties, and could result in damages, fines, penalties, non-monetary sanctions or relief. However, we do not consider any such claims, lawsuits or proceedings that are currently pending, individually or in the aggregate, to be material to our business or likely to result in a material adverse effect on our future operating results, financial condition or cash flows.

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ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURE
Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Part II

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ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT'S COMMON EQUITY
Item 5. Market for Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
Market Information
Our common stock is traded on the NYSE under the symbol “SPCE.”
Holders
As of February 22, 2021, there were 350 holders of record of our shares of common stock. The actual number of stockholders of our common stock is greater than this number of record holders and includes stockholders who are beneficial owners but whose shares of common stock are held in street name by banks, brokers and other nominees.
Recent Sales of Unregistered Equity Securities
None.
Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities
None.
Stock Performance Graph
The following graph shows the total stockholder return of an investment of $100 cash on October 28, 2019 (the date our common stock began trading on the NYSE after the Virgin Galactic Business Combination) through December 31, 2020 for (1) our common stock, (2) Standard & Poor's ("S&P") 500 Index and (3) the average of comparable companies listed in the NYSE. All values assume reinvestment of the full amount of all dividends. The comparisons in the table are required by the SEC and are not intended to forecast or be indicative of possible future performance of our common stock. This graph shall not be deemed "soliciting material" or be deemed "filed" for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our filings under the Securities Act, whether made before or after the date hereof and irrespective of any general incorporation language in any such filing.
As of December 31, 2020, the comparable companies used are comprised of the following companies: Atlas Air Worldwide Holdings, Inc., The Boeing Company, Comtech Telecommunications Corp., EchoStar Corporation, Hexcel Corporation, Iridium Communications Inc., KVH Industries Inc., L3 Harris Technologies Inc, Lockheed Martin Corp., and Northrop Grumman Corp.

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ITEM 6. SELECTED FINANCIAL DATA
Item 6. Selected Consolidated Financial Data
Not applicable.

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ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Unless the context otherwise requires, all references in this section to the “Company,” “we,” “us,” or “our” refer to the business of the VG Companies and their subsidiaries prior to the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries after consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination. Prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and prior to the series of Vieco 10 reorganization steps, Galactic Ventures, LLC ("GV"), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Vieco 10, was the direct parent of VG Companies.
You should read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with the consolidated financial statements and related notes included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. This discussion contains forward-looking statements that reflect our plans, estimates, and beliefs that involve risks and uncertainties. As a result of many factors, such as those set forth under the “Risk Factors” and “Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements” sections and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our actual results may differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements.
The following is a discussion and analysis of, and a comparison between, our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019. A discussion and analysis of, and a comparison between, our results of operations for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018 can be found in Item 7, “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations,” in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2019.
Overview
We are at the vanguard of a new industry, pioneering the commercial exploration of space with reusable spaceflight systems. We believe the commercial exploration of space represents one of the most exciting and important technology initiatives of our time. This industry has begun growing dramatically due to new products, new sources of private and government funding, and new technologies. Demand is emerging from new sectors and demographics. As government space agencies have retired or reduced their own capacity to send humans into space, private companies are beginning to make crucial inroads into the fields of human space exploration. We have embarked into this commercial exploration journey with a mission to put humans into space and return them safely to Earth on a routine and consistent basis. We believe the success of this mission will provide the foundation for a myriad of exciting new industries.
We are a vertically integrated aerospace company pioneering human spaceflight for private individuals and researchers. Our spaceship operations consist of commercial human spaceflight and flying commercial research and development payloads into space. Our operations also include the design and development, manufacturing, ground and flight testing, and post-flight maintenance of our spaceflight vehicles. We focus our efforts in spaceflights using our reusable technology for human tourism and for research and education. We intend to offer our customers a unique, multi-day experience culminating in a spaceflight that includes several minutes of weightlessness and views of Earth from space. As part of our commercial operations, we have exclusive access to the Gateway to Space facility at Spaceport America located in New Mexico. Spaceport America is the world’s first purpose built commercial spaceport and will be the site of our initial commercial spaceflight operations. We believe the site provides us with a competitive advantage when creating our spaceflight plans as it not only has a desert climate with relatively predictable weather conditions preferable to support our spaceflights, it also has airspace that is restricted for surrounding commercial air traffic that facilitates frequent and consistent flight scheduling.
Our primary mission is to launch the first commercial program for human spaceflight. In December 2018, we made history by flying our groundbreaking spaceship, VSS Unity, to space. This represented the first flight of a spaceflight system built for commercial service to take humans into space. Shortly thereafter, we flew our second spaceflight in VSS Unity in February 2019, and, in addition to the two pilots, carried a crew member in the cabin. We have received reservations for approximately 600 spaceflight tickets and collected more than $80.0 million in future astronaut deposits as of December 31, 2020. Additionally, 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, there were approximately 1,000 participants in our One Small Step program 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. With each ticket purchased, future astronauts will experience a multi-day journey that includes a tour of the spaceport, flight suit fitting, spaceflight training and culminating with a trip to space on the final day.
We have also developed an extensive set of vertically integrated aerospace development capabilities encompassing preliminary vehicle design and analysis, detail design, manufacturing, ground testing, flight testing, and maintenance of our
spaceflight system. Our spaceflight system consists of three primary components: our carrier aircraft, the mothership; our spaceship, SpaceShip; and our hybrid rocket motor.
SpaceShip is a spaceship with the capacity to carry pilots and future astronauts, or commercial research and development payloads, into space and return them safely to Earth. Fundamentally, SpaceShip is a rocket-powered aerospace vehicle that operates more like a plane than a traditional rocket. SpaceShip is powered by a hybrid rocket propulsion system, which we refer to as "RocketMotor", which propels the spaceship on a trajectory into space. SpaceShip’s cabin has been designed to maximize the future astronaut’s safety, experience and comfort. A dozen windows line the sides and ceiling of the spaceship, offering the future astronauts the ability to view the blackness of space as well as stunning views of the Earth below. Our mothership is a twin-fuselage, custom-built aircraft designed to carry SpaceShip up to an altitude of approximately 45,000 feet where the spaceship is released for its flight into space. Using the mothership's air launch capability, rather than a standard ground-launch, reduces the energy requirements of our spaceflight system as SpaceShip does not have to rocket its way through the higher density atmosphere closest to the Earth’s surface.
Our team is currently in various stages of designing, testing and manufacturing additional spaceships, carrier aircraft and rocket motors in order to meet the expected demand for human spaceflight experiences. Concurrently, we are researching and developing new products and technologies to grow our company.
Our operations also include efforts in spaceflight opportunities for research and education. For example, professional researchers have utilized parabolic aircraft and drop towers to create moments of microgravity and conduct significant research activities. In most cases, these solutions offer only seconds of microgravity per flight and do not offer access to the upper atmosphere or space. Other researchers have conducted experiments on sounding rockets or satellites. These opportunities are expensive, infrequent and impose highly limiting operational constraints. We believe that research experiments will benefit from prolonged exposure to space conditions and yield better results aboard SpaceShip due to the large cabin, gentler flight, relatively low cost, advantageous operational parameters, and frequent flights. As such, researchers and educators are able to conduct critical experiments and obtain important data without having to sacrifice time and resources. Our commitment to advancing research and science was present in our December 2018 and February 2019 spaceflights as we transported payloads into space for research purposes under a NASA flight contract.
We have also leveraged our knowledge and expertise in manufacturing spaceships to occasionally perform engineering services for future astronauts, such as research, design, development, manufacturing and integration of advanced technology systems.
Factors Affecting Our Performance
We believe that our performance and future success depend on a number of factors that present significant opportunities for us but also pose risks and challenges, including those discussed below and in the section of this Annual Report on 10-K titled “Risk Factors.”
Impact of COVID-19
On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization characterized the outbreak of COVID-19 as a global pandemic and recommended containment and mitigation measures. Since then, extraordinary actions have been taken by international, federal, state, and local public health and governmental authorities to contain and combat the outbreak and spread of COVID-19 in regions throughout the world. These actions have included travel bans, quarantines, "stay-at-home" orders, and similar mandates for many individuals to substantially restrict daily activities and for many businesses to curtail or cease normal operations.
Consistent with the actions taken by governmental authorities, including California, New Mexico and the United Kingdom, where most of our workforce is located, we took appropriately cautious steps to protect our workforce and support community efforts. As part of these efforts, and in accordance with applicable government directives, we initially reduced and then temporarily suspended on-site operations at our facilities in Mojave, California and Spaceport America, New Mexico and in our London office location in late March 2020. Starting late March 2020, approximately two-thirds of our employees and contractors were able to complete their duties from home, which enabled critical work to continue, including engineering analysis and drawing releases for VSS Unity, VMS Eve and the second SpaceShipTwo vehicle, process documentation updates, as well as workforce training and education. The remaining one-third of our workforce was unable to perform their normal duties from home. In April 2020, in accordance with our classification within the critical infrastructure designation, we resumed limited operations under revised operational and manufacturing plans that conform to the latest COVID-19 health precautions.
Such actions included, although were not limited to, universal facial covering requirements, rearranging facilities to follow social distancing protocols, conducting active daily temperature checks and undertaking regular and thorough disinfecting of work surfaces, tools and equipment. We offered testing to employees and contractors for COVID-19 on a regular basis. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the precautionary actions taken throughout the year 2020 related to COVID-19 have adversely impacted, and are expected to continue to adversely impact, our operations, including the completion of the development of our spaceflight systems and our scheduled spaceflight test programs.
As of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, all of our employees whose work requires them to be in our facilities are now back on-site and we continue with our implemented and established strict protocols to ensure employee safety, including enforcing staggered shifts to lower on-site density and re-working communications processes with engineers who are primarily working from home. We have, however, experienced, and expect to continue to experience, reductions in operational efficiency due to illness from COVID-19 and precautionary actions taken related to COVID-19. For the time being, we are encouraging those employees who are able to work from home to continue doing so until case levels are lowered and vaccinations are more readily available.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the protocols and procedures we have implemented in response to the pandemic have caused and continue to cause delays to our business and operations, which has led to accumulated impacts to both schedule and cost efficiency and some delays in operational and maintenance activities, including delays in our test flight program. We expect this to continue well into 2021. The full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business and results of our future operations will depend on future developments, such as the ultimate duration and scope of the outbreak and its impact on our operations necessary to complete the development of our spaceflight systems, our scheduled spaceflight test programs and commencement of our commercial flights. In addition to existing travel restrictions, countries may continue to maintain or reimpose closed borders, impose prolonged quarantines, and/or further restrict travel. We believe our cash and cash equivalents on hand at December 31, 2020 and management's operating plan will provide sufficient liquidity to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months from the issuance of the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. If we experience a significant delay due to our workforce getting ill or if the pandemic worsens, we may take additional actions, such as further reducing costs.
Commercial Launch of Our Human Spaceflight Program
We are in the final phases of developing our commercial spaceflight program. Prior to commercialization, we must complete our test flight program, which includes a rigorous series of ground and flight tests, including our baseline spaceflight metrics, flight paths and safety protocol that will be used throughout our spaceflight program. The final portion of the test flight program includes submission of verification reports to the FAA for their review, which will then allow us to carry paying customers on spaceflights under our existing commercial spaceflight license. However, the timing of the submission may be delayed by multiple factors, some of which are outside of our control, including the current, and uncertain future impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our business. Any delays in successful completion of our test flight program, whether due to the impact of COVID-19 or otherwise, will impact our ability to generate human spaceflight revenue.
Customer Demand
While not yet in commercial service for human spaceflight, we have already received significant interest from potential future astronauts. Going forward, we expect the size of our backlog and the number of future astronauts that have flown to space on our spaceflight system to be an important indicator of our future performance. As of December 31, 2020, we had reservations for SpaceShip flights for approximately 600 future astronauts. 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.
Available Capacity and Annual Flight Rate
We face constraints of resources and competing demand for our human spaceflights. We expect to commence commercial operations with a single SpaceShip, VSS Unity, and a single mothership carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, which together comprise our only spaceflight system. As a result, our annual flight rate will be constrained by the availability and capacity of this spaceflight system. To reduce this constraint, we are in various stages of designing, testing and manufacturing two additional SpaceShip vehicles as well as an additional mothership carrier. We believe that expanding the fleet will allow us to increase our annual flight rate once commercialization is achieved.
Safety Performance of Our Spaceflight Systems
Our spaceflight systems are highly specialized with sophisticated and complex technology. We have built operational processes to ensure that the design, manufacture, performance and servicing of our spaceflight systems meet rigorous quality standards. However, our spaceflight systems are still subject to operational and process problems, such as manufacturing and design issues, pilot errors, or cyber-attacks. Any actual or perceived safety issues may result in significant reputational harm to our business and our ability to generate human spaceflight revenue.
Component of Results of Operations
Revenue
To date, we have primarily generated revenue by transporting scientific commercial research and development payloads using our spaceflight systems and by providing engineering services as a subcontractor to the primary contractor of a long-term contract with the U.S. government. We also have generated revenues from a sponsorship arrangement.
Following the commercial launch of our human spaceflight services, we expect the significant majority of our revenue to be derived from sales of tickets to fly to space. We also expect that we will continue to receive a small portion of our revenue by providing services relating to the research, design, development, manufacture and integration of advanced technology systems.
Cost of Revenue
Costs of revenue related to spaceflights include costs related to the consumption of a rocket motor, fuel, payroll and benefits for our pilots and ground crew, and maintenance. Cost of revenue related to the engineering services consist of expenses related to materials and human capital, such as payroll and benefits. Once we have completed our test flight program and commenced commercial operations, we will capitalize the cost to construct any additional SpaceShip vehicles. Cost of revenue will include vehicle depreciation once those spaceships are placed into service. We have not capitalized any spaceship development costs to date.
Gross Profit and Gross Margin
Gross profit is calculated based on the difference between our revenue and cost of revenue. Gross margin is the percentage obtained by dividing gross profit by our revenue. Our gross profit and gross margin has varied historically based on the mix of revenue-generating spaceflights and engineering services. As we approach the commercialization of our spaceflights, we expect our gross profit and gross margin may continue to vary as we scale our fleet of spaceflight systems.
Selling, General and Administrative
Selling, general and administrative expenses consist of human capital related expenses for employees involved in general corporate functions, including executive management and administration, accounting, finance, tax, legal, information technology, marketing and commercial, and human resources; depreciation expense and rent relating to facilities, including a portion of the lease with Spaceport America, and equipment; professional fees; and other general corporate costs. Human capital expenses primarily include salaries, cash bonuses and benefits. As we continue to grow as a company, we expect that our selling, general and administrative costs will increase on an absolute dollar basis.
We incur additional expenses as a result of operating as a public company, including expenses necessary to comply with the rules and regulations applicable to companies listed on a national securities exchange and related to compliance and reporting obligations pursuant to the rules and regulations of the SEC, as well as higher expenses for general and director and officer insurance, investor relations, and professional services.
Research and Development
Research and development expense represents costs incurred to support activities that advance our human spaceflight towards commercialization, including basic research, applied research, concept formulation studies, design, development, and related testing activities. Research and development costs consist primarily of the following costs for developing our spaceflight systems:
•flight testing programs, including rocket motors, fuel, and payroll and benefits for pilots and ground crew performing test flights;
•equipment, material, and labor hours (including from third party contractors) for developing the spaceflight system’s structure, spaceflight propulsion system, and flight profiles; and
•rent, maintenance, and depreciation of facilities and equipment and other overhead expenses allocated to the research and development departments.
As of December 31, 2020, our current primary research and development objectives focus on the development of our SpaceShip vehicle, and our for commercial spaceflights and developing our RocketMotor, a hybrid rocket propulsion system that will be used to propel our SpaceShip vehicles into space. The successful development of SpaceShip and RocketMotor involves many uncertainties, including:
•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 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 research and development activities;
•our ability to continue funding and maintain our current research and development activities; and
•the impact of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.
A change in the outcome of any of these variables could delay the development of SpaceShips and RocketMotor, which in turn could impact when we are able to commence our human spaceflights.
As we are currently still in our final development and testing stage of our spaceflight system, we have expensed all research and development costs associated with developing and building our spaceflight system. We expect that our research and development expenses will decrease once technological feasibility is reached for our spaceflight systems as the costs incurred to manufacture additional SpaceShip vehicles, built by leveraging the invested research and development, will no longer qualify as research and development activities.
Interest Income
Interest income consists primarily of interest earned on cash and cash equivalents held by us in interest bearing demand deposit accounts.
Interest Expense
Interest expense relates to our finance lease obligations.
Other Income
Other income consists of miscellaneous non-operating items, such as gains on marketable securities and handling fees related to customer refunds.
Income Tax Provision
We are subject to income taxes in the United States and the United Kingdom. Our income tax provision consists of an estimate of federal, state, and foreign income taxes based on enacted federal, state, and foreign tax rates, as adjusted for allowable credits, deductions, uncertain tax positions, changes in the valuation of our deferred tax assets and liabilities, and changes in tax laws.
Results of Consolidated Operations
The following tables set forth our results of operations for the periods presented and expresses the relationship of certain line items as a percentage of revenue for those periods. The period-to-period comparisons of financial results is not necessarily indicative of future results.
Years Ended December 31,
2020 2019
(In thousands)
Revenue $ 238 $ 3,781
Cost of revenue 173 2,004
Gross profit 65 1,777
Operating expenses:
Selling, general and administrative expenses 116,592 82,166
Research and development expenses 158,757 132,873
Operating loss (275,284) (213,262)
Interest income 2,277 2,297
Interest expense (36) (36)
Other income 14 128
Loss before income taxes (273,029) (210,873)
Income tax expense 6 62
Net loss $ (273,035) $ (210,935)
Year Ended December 31, 2020 Compared to Year Ended December 31, 2019
Revenue
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Revenue $ 238 $ 3,781 $ (3,543) (94) %
Revenue decreased by $3.5 million, or 94%, to $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $3.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. This decrease is primarily due to decreased engineering services of approximately $2.4 million under long-term U.S. government contracts, a decrease in payload revenue of $0.8 million attributable to the February 2019 payload flown in connection with our testing program, and reduced sponsorship revenue of $0.3 million from an expired agreement.
Cost of Revenue and Gross Profit
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Cost of revenue $ 173 $ 2,004 $ (1,831) (91) %
Gross profit $ 65 $ 1,777 $ (1,712) (96) %
Gross margin 27 % 47 %
Cost of revenue decreased by $1.8 million, or 91%, to $0.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $2.0 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. The decrease in cost of revenue was primarily due to the costs for flying payload in February 2019 compared to the year ended December 31, 2020 for which no payload revenue was recorded. The labor costs associated with providing engineering services under long-term U.S. government contracts decreased proportionally
with the billings. Gross profit decreased by $1.7 million, or 96%, to $0.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $1.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. Gross margin for the year ended December 31, 2020 decreased by 20% compared to the year ended December 31, 2019. The decrease in gross profit and gross margin was primarily driven by smaller gross margins associated with the long-term engineering service contracts.
Selling, General and Administrative Expenses
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Selling, general and administrative expense $ 116,592 $ 82,166 $ 34,426 42 %
Selling, general and administrative expenses increased by $34.4 million, or 42%, to $116.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $82.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. This $34.4 million increase was primarily due to a $19.1 million increase in stock-based compensation expense related to stock-based awards made in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination in the fourth quarter of 2019, as well as other expenses that have increased as a result of being a public company, including increased insurance of $8.1 million related to new directors and officers insurance policies, legal, audit, and other professional fees of $4.8 million and salaries and benefits of $1.5 million.
Research and Development Expenses
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Research and development expenses $ 158,757 $ 132,873 $ 25,884 19 %
Research and development expenses increased by $25.9 million, or 19%, to $158.8 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $132.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2019. The increase was primarily due to a $8.4 million increase in stock-based compensation expense related to stock-based awards made in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination in the fourth quarter of 2019. Further drivers related primarily to costs associated with developing our spaceflight system, including increases of $8.4 million in salaries and benefits, $3.3 million in increased facility costs, $1.9 million of insurance and $1.6 million related to increased equipment leases and maintenance.
Interest Income
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Interest income 2,277 2,297 $ (20) (1) %
Interest income was essentially flat year over year, decreasing by less than $0.1 million, or 1%, to $2.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 from $2.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2019.
Interest Expense
Interest expense was immaterial for the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.
Other Income
Years Ended
December 31, $
Change %
Change
2020 2019
(In thousands, except %)
Other income $ 14 $ 128 $ (114) (89) %
Other income for the year ended December 31, 2020 decreased by $0.1 million, or 89%, to less than $0.1 million compared to $0.1 million in December 31, 2019, primarily due to net unrealized losses on marketable securities and handling fees related to customer refunds.
Income Tax Expense
Income tax expense was immaterial for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018. We have accumulated net operating losses at the federal and state level as we have not yet started commercial operations. We maintain a substantially full valuation allowance against our net U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets. The income tax expenses shown above are primarily related to minimum state filing fees in the states where we have operations as well as corporate income taxes for our operations in the United Kingdom, which operates on a cost-plus arrangement.
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Prior to the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, our operations historically participated in cash management and funding arrangements managed by V10 and GV. Only cash and cash equivalents held in bank accounts legally owned by entities dedicated to us are reflected in the consolidated balance sheets. Cash and cash equivalents held in bank accounts legally owned by V10 and GV were not directly attributable to us for any of the periods presented. Transfers of cash, both to and from V10 and GV by us have been reflected as a component of net parent investment and membership equity in the consolidated balance sheets and as a financing activity on the accompanying consolidated statements of cash flows.
As of December 31, 2020, we had cash and cash equivalents of $665.9 million and restricted cash of $13.0 million. For the periods prior to our consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination on October 25, 2019, we have financed our operations and capital expenditures through cash flows financed by V10 and GV. Our principal sources of liquidity following the Virgin Galactic Business Combination have been proceeds received as part of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and proceeds from our August 2020 public offering of common stock.
As described above, the COVID-19 pandemic and the protocols and procedures we have implemented in response to the pandemic have caused and continue to cause delays to our business and operations. We expect this to continue in 2021, however, the full impact on our future business and results of operations will depend on future developments, such as the ultimate duration and scope of the outbreak and its impact on our operations necessary to complete the development of our spaceflight systems, our scheduled spaceflight test programs and commencement of our commercial flights. In addition to existing travel restrictions, countries may continue to maintain or reimpose closed borders, impose prolonged quarantines, and /or further restrict travel. We believe our cash and cash equivalents on hand at December 31, 2020 and management's operating plan, will provide sufficient liquidity to fund our operations for at least the next twelve months from the issuance of the financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.
Historical Cash Flows
Years Ended December 31,
2020 2019
(In thousands)
Net cash provided by (used in)
Operating activities $ (233,159) $ (209,111)
Investing activities (17,201) (13,856)
Financing activities 436,594 634,320
Net change in cash and cash equivalents and restricted cash $ 186,234 $ 411,353
Operating Activities
Net cash used in operating activities was $233.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, primarily consisting of $273.0 million of net losses, adjusted for non-cash items, which primarily included depreciation and amortization expense of $9.8 million and stock based compensation expense of $30.3 million, as well as a $0.3 million increase in cash consumed by working capital purposes. The increase in cash consumed by working capital purposes was primarily driven by an increase in certain assets including prepayments and other current assets and related party receivables, as well as a decrease in accounts payable and accrued liabilities. This increase in cash consumed by working capital was partially offset by a decrease in inventories and an increase in other current and noncurrent liabilities.
Net cash used in operating activities was $209.1 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, primarily consisting of $210.9 million of net losses, adjusted for non-cash items, which primarily included depreciation and amortization expense of $7.0 million and stock based compensation expense of $2.5 million, as well as a $7.2 million increase in cash consumed by working capital. The increase in cash consumed by working capital was primarily driven by an increase in certain assets including inventories, prepayments and other current assets alongside a decrease in certain liabilities including accounts payable and accrued liabilities. This increase in cash consumed by working capital was partially offset by an increase in certain liabilities including amounts due to related parties, net and customer deposits, alongside a decrease in certain assets including accounts receivable and other noncurrent assets.
Investing Activities
Net cash used in investing activities was $17.2 million for the year ended December 31, 2020, primarily consisting of purchases of manufacturing equipment, leasehold improvements at the Mojave Air and Space Port facility, purchases of furniture and fixtures, IT infrastructure upgrades and construction activities at the Gateway to Space facility and at spaceflight systems fueling facilities.
Net cash used in investing activities was $13.9 million for the year ended December 31, 2019, primarily consisting of purchases of manufacturing equipment, leasehold improvements at the Mojave Air and Space Port facility, purchases of furniture and fixtures, IT infrastructure upgrades and construction activities at the Gateway to Space facility and at spaceflight systems fueling facilities.
Financing Activities
Net cash provided by financing activities was $436.6 million for the year ended December 31, 2020 consisting primarily of cash received from the sale and issuance of common stock, offset by withholding taxes paid on behalf of employees related to net-settled stock-based award issuances, professional and other fees related to financing transaction costs.
Net cash provided by financing activities was $634.3 million for the year ended December 31, 2019 consisting primarily of proceeds of $500.0 million from the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, equity contributions from V10 of $162.4 million and proceeds of $20.0 million from issuance of our common stock, partially offset by issuance costs of $48.0 million incurred in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination.
Funding Requirements
We expect our expenses to increase substantially in connection with our ongoing activities, particularly as we continue to advance the development of our spaceflight system and the commercialization of our human spaceflight operations. In addition, we expect cost of revenue to increase significantly as we commence commercial operations and add additional spaceships to our operating fleet.
Specifically, our operating expenses will increase as we:
•scale up our manufacturing processes and capabilities to support expanding our fleet with additional spaceships, carrier aircraft and rocket motors upon commercialization;
•pursue further research and development on our future human spaceflights, including those related to our research and education efforts, supersonic and hypersonic point-to-point travel;
•hire additional personnel in research and development, manufacturing operations, testing programs, and maintenance as we increase the volume of our spaceflights upon commercialization;
•seek regulatory approval for any changes, upgrades or improvements to our spaceflight technologies and operations in the future, especially upon commercialization;
•maintain, expand and protect our intellectual property portfolio; and
•hire additional personnel in management to support the expansion of our operational, financial, information technology, and other areas to support our operations as a public company.
Although we believe that our current capital is adequate to sustain our operations for a period of time, changing circumstances may cause us to consume capital significantly faster than we currently anticipate, and we may need to spend more money than currently expected because of circumstances beyond our control. Additionally, we are in the final phases of developing our commercial spaceflight program. While we anticipate initial commercial launch with a single SpaceShip, we currently have two additional SpaceShip vehicles under construction and expect the direct costs to complete these two vehicles to be in the range of $35 million to $55 million. We anticipate the costs to manufacture additional vehicles will begin to decrease as we continue to scale up our manufacturing processes and capabilities. Until we have achieved technological feasibility with our spaceflight systems, we will not capitalize expenditures incurred to construct any additional components of our spaceflight systems and continue to expense these costs as incurred to research and development.
The commercial launch of our human spaceflight program and the anticipated expansion of our fleet have unpredictable costs and are subject to significant risks, uncertainties and contingencies, many of which are beyond our control, that may affect the timing and magnitude of these anticipated expenditures. Some of these risk and uncertainties are described in more detail in this Annual Report on Form 10-K under the heading Item 1A. “Risk Factors-Risks Related to Our Business.”
Commitments and Contingencies
The following table summarizes our contractual obligations as of December 31, 2020.
Payments Due by Periods
Total <1
year 1-3
years 3-5
years >5
years
(In thousands)
Operating lease obligations1
$ 51,707 $ 5,318 $ 7,893 $ 7,666 $ 30,830
Finance lease obligations1
417 160 230 27 -
Obligations under Notes payable2
620 $ 310 $ 310 $ - $ -
Total obligations $ 52,744 $ 5,788 $ 8,433 $ 7,693 $ 30,830
________________________________
1We are a party to operating leases primarily for land and buildings (e.g., office buildings, warehouses and spaceport) and certain equipment (e.g., copiers) under non-cancelable operating and finance leases. These leases expire at various dates through 2065.
2 Notes payable relate to a secured loan obtained in June, 2020, to finance the purchase of software licenses. The loan is payable in annual installments, with the final payment due on October 1, 2022. See footnote 9 to the Consolidated Financial Statements.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
We do not engage in any off-balance sheet activities or have any arrangements or relationships with unconsolidated entities, such as variable interest, special purpose, and structured finance entities.
Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates
Our discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations are based upon our consolidated financial statements, which have been prepared in accordance with GAAP. The preparation of our consolidated financial statements and related disclosures requires us to make estimates, assumptions and judgments that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, costs and expenses and related disclosures. We believe that the estimates, assumptions and judgments involved in the accounting policies described below have the greatest potential impact on our financial statements and, therefore, we consider these to be our critical accounting policies. Accordingly, we evaluate our estimates and assumptions on an ongoing basis. Our actual results may differ from these estimates under different assumptions and conditions. Please refer to
Note 2 in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information about these critical accounting policies, as well as a description of our other significant accounting policies.
Inventories
Inventories consist of raw materials expected to be used for the development of the human spaceflight program and customer specific contracts. Inventories are stated at the lower of cost or net realizable value. If events or changes in circumstances indicate that the utility of our inventories have diminished through damage, deterioration, obsolescence, changes in price or other causes, a loss is recognized in the period in which it occurs. We determine the costs of other product and supply inventories by using the first-in first-out or average cost methods. Our status of pre-technical feasibility means that material issued from inventory into production of our vehicles, labor charges and overhead charges are charged to R&D expense.
Research and Development
We conduct research and development activities to develop existing and future technologies that advance our spaceflight system towards commercialization. Research and development activities include basic research, applied research, concept formulation studies, design, development, and related test program activities. Costs incurred for developing our spaceflight system and flight profiles primarily include equipment, material, and labor hours. Costs incurred for performing test flights primarily include rocket motors, fuel, and payroll and benefits for pilots and ground crew. Research and development costs also include rent, maintenance, and depreciation of facilities and equipment and other allocated overhead expenses. We expense all research and development costs as incurred. Once we have achieved technological feasibility, we will capitalize the costs to construct any additional components of our spaceflight systems.
Income Taxes
We record income tax expense for the anticipated tax consequences of the reported results of operations using the asset and liability method. Under this method, we recognize deferred tax assets and liabilities for the expected future tax consequences of temporary differences between the financial reporting and tax basis of assets and liabilities, as well as for operating loss and tax credit carryforwards. Deferred tax assets and liabilities are measured using the tax rates that are expected to apply to taxable income for the years in which those tax assets and liabilities are expected to be realized or settled. We record valuation allowances to reduce our deferred tax assets to the net amount that we believe is more likely than not to be realized. Our assessment considers the recognition of deferred tax assets on a jurisdictional basis. Accordingly, in assessing its future taxable income on a jurisdictional basis, we consider the effect of our transfer pricing policies on that income. We have placed a valuation allowance against U.S. federal and state deferred tax assets since the recovery of the assets is uncertain.
We recognize tax benefits from uncertain tax positions only if we believe that it is more likely than not that the tax position will be sustained on examination by the taxing authorities based on the technical merits of the position. As we grow, we will face increased complexity in determining the appropriate tax jurisdictions for revenue and expense items. We adjust these reserves when facts and circumstances change, such as the closing of a tax audit or refinement of an estimate. To the extent that the final tax outcome of these matters is different than the amounts recorded, such differences will affect the income tax expense in the period in which such determination is made and could have a material impact on our financial condition and operating results. The income tax expense includes the effects of any accruals that we believe are appropriate, as well as the related net interest and penalties.
We have not yet started commercial operations and as such we are accumulating net operating losses at the federal and state levels, which are reflected in the income tax provision section of the balance sheet. The presented income taxes in these statements are primarily related to minimum state filing fees in the states where we have operations as well as corporate income taxes for our operations in the United Kingdom, which operates on a cost-plus arrangement and therefore incurs income tax expenses.
Stock-Based Compensation
In connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, our board of directors and stockholders adopted the 2019 Incentive Award Plan (the "2019 Plan"). Pursuant to the 2019 Plan, up to 21,208,755 shares of common stock have been reserved for issuance to employees, consultants and directors. Please refer to Note 13 in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information regarding stock-based compensation.
Recent Accounting Pronouncements
Please refer to Note 3 in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a description of recently adopted accounting pronouncements and recently issued accounting pronouncements not yet adopted as of the date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

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ITEM 7A. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE DISCLOSURES ABOUT MARKET RISK
Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures about Market Risk
We have operations within the United States and the United Kingdom and as such we are exposed to market risks in the ordinary course of our business, including the effects of interest rate changes and fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. Information relating to quantitative and qualitative disclosures about these market risks is set forth below.
Interest Rate Risk
Cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash consist solely of cash held in depository accounts and as such are not affected by either an increase or decrease in interest rates. We consider all highly liquid investments with a maturity of three months or less as cash equivalents. As of December 31, 2020, we had $679.0 million deposits held primarily in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, which includes $651.6 million in cash equivalents. Cash equivalents are short term investments and would not be significantly impacted by changes in the interest rates. We believe that a 10% increase or decrease in interest rates would not have a material effect on our interest income or expense.
Foreign Currency Risk
The functional currency of our operations in the United Kingdom is the local currency. We translate the financial statements of the operations in the United Kingdom to United States Dollars and as such we are exposed to foreign currency risk. Currently, we do not use foreign currency forward contracts to manage exchange rate risk, as the amount subject to foreign currency risk is not material to our overall operations and results.

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ITEM 8. FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data
The financial statements required by this Item are included in Item 15 of this report and are presented beginning on page and are incorporated herein by reference.

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ITEM 9. CHANGES IN AND DISAGREEMENTS WITH ACCOUNTANTS
Item 9. Changes in and Disagreements With Accountants on Accounting and Financial Disclosure
As previously reported on our Form 10-K, dated February 26, 2020, upon the approval of the audit committee of our board of directors, Marcum LLP (“Marcum”) was dismissed as our independent registered public accounting firm, and KPMG LLP (“KPMG”) was engaged as our independent registered public accounting firm effective November 12, 2019. Marcum served as our independent registered public accounting firm since May 5, 2017, our inception as Social Capital Hedosophia Holdings Corp., whereas KPMG served as the independent registered public accounting firm for Galactic Enterprises, LLC (formerly Virgin Galactic, LLC), Galactic Co., LLC (formerly TSC, LLC), Virgin Galactic (UK) Limited and their respective subsidiaries (collectively, the “Virgin Galactic Business”) prior to the consummation of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination. The audit committee decided to engage KPMG because, for accounting purposes, our historical financial statements include a continuation of the financial statements of the Virgin Galactic Business.
Marcum’s report on our financial statements for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2018 and for the period from May 5, 2017 (inception) through December 31, 2017 did not contain an adverse opinion or disclaimer of opinion, nor were such reports qualified or modified as to uncertainty, audit scope or accounting principles. During the period of Marcum’s engagement and the subsequent interim period preceding Marcum’s dismissal, there were no disagreements with Marcum on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreements, if not resolved to the satisfaction of Marcum, would have caused it to make a reference to the subject matter of the disagreement in connection with its reports covering such periods. In addition, no “reportable events,” as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K, occurred within the period of Marcum’s engagement and the subsequent interim period preceding Marcum’s dismissal.

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ITEM 9A. CONTROLS AND PROCEDURES
Item 9A. Controls and Procedures
Background and Remediation of Material Weakness
In connection with the audit of our consolidated financial statements as of and for the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, we, and our independent registered public accounting firm, determined that we had two material weaknesses in our internal control over financial reporting.
The first material weakness related to a lack of a sufficient number of personnel to execute, review and approve all aspects of the financial statement close and reporting process. The second material weakness arose from the need to augment our information technology and application controls in our financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act). A material weakness is a deficiency, or a combination of deficiencies, in internal control over financial reporting such that there is a reasonable possibility that a material misstatement of our annual or interim financial statements will not be prevented or detected on a timely basis.
During the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020, management completed the implementation and testing of internal controls over financial reporting to remediate these material weaknesses. Specifically, management completed the following remediation actions to ensure control deficiencies that contributed to the material weaknesses are remediated:
•We hired qualified staff and outside resources to segregate key functions within our financial and information technology processes supporting our internal controls over financial reporting.
•We implemented a training program addressing internal control over financial reporting, including educating control owners regarding the requirements of each control.
•We developed internal controls documentation, including comprehensive accounting policies and procedures and designed, implemented, and tested new controls over key financial processes.
•We developed information technology general controls documentation, designed, implemented, and tested new controls including application configurable controls over the primary systems supporting the key financial processes.
•We designed, implemented, and tested information technology controls for periodic user access reviews and system's security role over primary systems supporting the key financial processes.
•We designed, implemented, and tested new controls for the identification and assessment of the completeness and accuracy of spreadsheets, data, and system-generated reports used within key financial processes.
During the fourth quarter of 2020, the Company completed its testing of the newly designed controls. Based on the foregoing remediation activities and testing of controls, management determined that the material weaknesses were remediated and the Company’s internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020.
Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls and Procedures
In designing and evaluating our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act), management recognizes that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives. In addition, the design of disclosure controls and procedures must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints and that management is required to apply judgment in evaluating the benefits of possible controls and procedures relative to their costs.
Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures
Our management, with the participation of our chief executive officer and chief financial officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Based on this evaluation, our chief executive officer and chief financial officer concluded that, as of December 31, 2020, our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level.
Management's Report on Internal Controls Over Financial Reporting
Management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting for the Company. Under the supervision and with the participation of our management, we conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting based upon criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated
Framework (2013) by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on that evaluation, our management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020.
Attestation of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, has audited the consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and, as part of their audit, has issued their report, included herein, on the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting.
Changes in Internal Control Over Financial Reporting
Other than the remediation efforts described above taken to address the material weaknesses, there has been no change in our internal control over financial reporting during the three months ended December 31, 2020, that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

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ITEM 9B. OTHER INFORMATION
Item 9B. Other Information
None.
Part III

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ITEM 10. DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE OFFICERS AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE
Item 10. Directors, Executive Officers and Corporate Governance
Executive Officers and Directors
The following table sets forth the name, age and position of each of our executive officers and directors as of March 1, 2021. Other than as to Michael Moses, as more fully described under “Certain Transactions with Related Persons - Compensation of Chief Astronaut Instructor,” there are no family relationships among any of our executive officers or directors.
Name
Age
Position
Michael Colglazier
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Jonathan Campagna
Chief Financial Officer
Michael Moses
President, Missions and Safety, Galactic Enterprises, LLC
Michelle Kley
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary
Chamath Palihapitiya
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
Wanda Austin
Director
Adam Bain
Director
Craig Kreeger
Director
Evan Lovell
Director
George Mattson
54 Director
W. Gilbert West
60 Director
Executive Officers
Michael Colglazier. Mr. Colglazier, 54, has served as our Chief Executive Officer and as a member of our Board of Directors since July 2020 and has served as our President since February 2021. Mr. Colglazier most recently served as President and Managing Director, Disney Parks International from October 2019 until his departure in July 2020 and, from March 2018 to October 2019, as President and Managing Director, Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, Asia Pacific. In these capacities, he oversaw the operations and development of Disney parks and resorts outside of the United States, focusing on high-growth expansion and development of joint venture opportunities with government agencies. Prior to this, from January 2013 until March 2018, Mr. Colglazier was President of The Disneyland Resort, where he led a workforce of nearly 30,000 employees and drove record business performance and growth. During his 30+ year career at Disney, Mr. Colglazier served in several executive roles where he implemented a series of development and growth strategies across the world focused on product innovation and customer growth. He is currently Chairman of the CEO Roundtable for the University of California, Irvine, and a member of the Engineering Advisory Board of Rice University. He is also a past commissioner and member of the executive committee of the California Travel and Tourism Commission. Mr. Colglazier graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering and holds a master's degree in Business Administration from Harvard Business School.
We believe Mr. Colglazier is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience developing and growing consumer-oriented businesses strategically, commercially and operationally.
Jonathan Campagna. Mr. Campagna, 48, has served as our Chief Financial Officer since October 2019, and has served as the Chief Financial Officer for the VG Companies since April 2018. Mr. Campagna previously served as Vice President of Finance for the VG Companies from October 2015 to April 2018. Prior to joining the VG Companies, Mr. Campagna served as Controller from July 2012 to October 2015 at ICON Aircraft, a light sport aircraft manufacturer, where he helped transition the organization from a research and development centric organization to a full production environment. Before his tenure at ICON, Mr. Campagna held various financial leadership positions at Ericsson from April 2007 to July 2012, and prior to Ericsson was the Corporate Controller at Tandberg Television from June 2006 to April 2007, when it was acquired by Ericsson. Prior to Tandberg Television, Mr. Campagna was the Corporate Controller at GoldPocket Interactive, a media software provider, from May 2000 to June 2006, shortly after it was acquired by Tandberg Television. Mr. Campagna started his career in the audit and assurance services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers after graduating from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. Mr. Campagna is a certified public accountant (inactive) in the State of California.
Michael Moses. Mr. Moses, 53, has served as the President, Missions and Safety of Galactic Enterprises, LLC (“GE, LLC”), formerly known as Virgin Galactic, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of ours focused on the operation of our spaceflight systems, since June 2016, and is responsible for overseeing program development and spaceflight operations, including vehicle processing, flight planning, astronaut training and flight crew operations. Mr. Moses previously served as GE, LLC’s Vice-President of Operations from October 2011 to June 2016. Prior to joining the VG Companies, Mr. Moses served at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida as the Launch Integration Manager from August 2008 to October 2011, where he led all space shuttle processing activities from landing through launch, including serving as the chair of NASA’s Mission Management Team, where he provided ultimate shuttle launch decision authority. Mr. Moses served as Flight Director at NASA’s Johnson Space Center from April 2005 to August 2008 where he led teams of flight controllers in the planning, training and execution of space shuttle missions. Mr. Moses graduated from Purdue University with a bachelor’s degree in Physics and a master’s degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering, and earned a master’s degree in Space Sciences from the Florida Institute of Technology. Mr. Moses is a two-time recipient of the NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal.
Michelle Kley. Ms. Kley, 49, has served as our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary since December 2019. Ms. Kley is responsible for overseeing all legal affairs, including corporate governance, securities law and NYSE compliance, M&A activity and strategic transactions. She also acts as Corporate Secretary and advises the Board of Directors. Prior to joining the Company, from 2016 to 2019, Ms. Kley was the Senior Vice President, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer and Secretary of Maxar Technologies Inc. (“Maxar”), and from 2012 to 2016, she served as Associate General Counsel and Vice President of Legal of Space Systems/Loral, LLC, a subsidiary of Maxar. Prior to joining Maxar, from 2011 to 2012, Ms. Kley was a corporate associate at Morrison & Foerster LLP. From 2010 to 2011, Ms. Kley served as legal counsel for Beazley Group. From 2003 to 2009, Ms. Kley was a corporate associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati P.C. She is a member of the International Institute of Space Law and serves on the board of directors of its US affiliate, the US Center for Space Law. Ms. Kley graduated from University of California Berkeley Law School (Boalt Hall) with a J.D. degree and from Sonoma State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology.
Non-Employee Directors
Chamath Palihapitiya. Mr. Palihapitiya, 44, has served as the Chairperson of our Board of Directors since May 2017. Mr. Palihapitiya founded our company and served as its Chief Executive Officer since its inception until the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination in October 2019. Mr. Palihapitiya also served as a director of Slack Technologies Inc. from April 2014 to December 2019. Prior to founding Social Capital in 2011, Mr. Palihapitiya served as Vice President of User Growth at Facebook, and is recognized as having been a major force in its launch and growth. Mr. Palihapitiya was responsible for overseeing Monetization Products and Facebook Platform, both of which were key factors driving the increase in Facebook’s user base worldwide. Prior to working for Facebook, Mr. Palihapitiya was a principal at the Mayfield Fund, one of the United States’ oldest venture firms, before which he headed the instant messaging division at AOL. Mr. Palihapitiya graduated from the University of Waterloo, Canada with a degree in electrical engineering.
We believe Mr. Palihapitiya is well qualified to serve as the Chairperson of our Board of Directors because of his extensive management history and experience in identifying, investing in and building next-generation technologies and companies, and because he is a significant stockholder of ours.
Wanda Austin. Dr. Austin, 66, has served on the Company's Board of Directors since October 2019. Dr. Austin served as Interim President of the University of Southern California from August 2018 to July 2019 and has held an adjunct Research Professor appointment at the University’s Viterbi School’s Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering since 2007. Dr. Austin has been a director of Chevron Corporation and Amgen Inc. since December 2016 and October 2017, respectively. From January 2008 to October 2016, Dr. Austin served as President and Chief Executive Officer of The Aerospace Corporation, an independent nonprofit corporation operating the only federally funded research and development center for the space enterprise and performing technical analyses and assessments for a variety of government, civil and commercial customers. Before becoming President and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Austin served as Senior Vice President of the corporation’s National Systems Group and Engineering and Technology Group. From 2015 to January 2017, Dr. Austin served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, advising the President of the United States in areas where an understanding of science, technology and innovation was key to forming effective U.S. policy. Dr. Austin is also a co-founder of MakingSpace, Inc., focused on creating inclusive opportunities for collaboration, and served on the U.S. Human Spaceflight Review Committee from 2009 to 2010, the Defense Science Board from 2010 to 2016, the Space Foundation from 2013 to 2015, the California Council on Science and Technology from 2008 to 2013 and the NASA Advisory Council from 2005 to 2007 and 2014 to 2017. Dr. Austin is a fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics and the National Academy of Engineering. Dr. Austin holds a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Franklin & Marshall College, master's degrees in systems engineering and mathematics from the University of Pittsburgh and a doctorate in systems engineering from the University of Southern California.
We believe Dr. Austin is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of her extensive financial and operational experience as well as her deep experience in the aerospace industry.
Adam Bain. Mr. Bain, 47, has served on the Company's Board of Directors since September 2017. Mr. Bain is a co-managing partner of 01 Advisors, a venture capital firm targeting high-growth technology companies, since co-founding the firm in January 2018. Since November 2016, Mr. Bain has also been an independent advisor and investor in select growth-stage companies. Previously, Mr. Bain was the Chief Operating Officer of Twitter from September 2015 until November 2016 and President of Global Revenue & Partnerships from 2010 to September 2015, where he was responsible for the business lines at the public company, building one of the fastest revenue ramps of a consumer internet business. Mr. Bain oversaw employees in multiple countries ranging from Product, Business Operations, Business Development, Media Partnerships, Developer Relations, Twitter’s International business and all of the go-to-market Sales teams for the advertising and data businesses. Previously, Mr. Bain was the President of the Fox Audience Network at Newscorp, responsible for monetizing Fox’s digital assets. Mr. Bain started his career running product and engineering teams at Fox Sports and the Los Angeles Times. Mr. Bain earned his Bachelor of Arts in English Journalism from Miami University in Ohio.
Mr. Bain is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience relating to business growth and development within technology and other related industries.
Craig Kreeger. Mr. Kreeger, 61, has served on the Company's Board of Directors since October 2019. Mr. Kreeger recently retired from his role as Chief Executive Officer of Virgin Atlantic after leading the company from February 2013 through December 2018. During his tenure at Virgin Atlantic, Mr. Kreeger was responsible for all airline operations and led the company to rebuild its balance sheet, launch its successful joint venture with Delta Airlines and develop a long-term strategy for expanding the joint venture to include Air France and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Prior to his tenure at Virgin Atlantic, Mr. Kreeger spent 27 years at American Airlines, where he held a variety of commercial, operational, financial and strategic roles. Mr. Kreeger spent his last six years at American as part of its leadership team overseeing its International Division and then all of its Customer Service. Mr. Kreeger holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics from the University of California at San Diego and a Master of Business Administration from the University of California at Los Angeles.
We believe Mr. Kreeger is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive operational, financial and managerial experience and his deep industry knowledge.
Evan Lovell. Mr. Lovell, 51, has served on the Company's Board of Directors since October 2019. Mr. Lovell has been a Partner of Virgin Group Holdings Limited and its affiliates (collectively, the “Virgin Group") since October 2012 and is responsible for managing the Virgin Group’s investment team globally. Mr. Lovell currently serves as a member of the board of directors for a number of Virgin Group portfolio companies, including BMR Energy Ltd., V Cruises US, LLC, Virgin Cruises Intermediate Limited, Virgin Cruises Limited, Vieco 10 Limited, Virgin Hotels, LLC, Virgin Sport Group Limited, Virgin Sport Management USA, Inc. and VO Holdings, Inc. From December 2008 to June 2019, Mr. Lovell was a member of the board of directors of AquaVenture Holdings Limited, and from April 2013 to December 2016 was a member of the board of directors of Virgin America Inc. From September 1997 to October 2007, Mr. Lovell served as an investment professional at TPG Capital, where he also served on the board of a number of TPG portfolio companies. Mr. Lovell holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Vermont.
We believe Mr. Lovell is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive experience as a seasoned investor and operator.
George Mattson. Mr. Mattson, 54, has served on the Company's Board of Directors since October 2019. Mr. Mattson has served as a director for Delta Air Lines, Inc. since October 2012. In addition, Mr. Mattson is co-founder of NextGen Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company, and has served as co-chairman and a director since October 2020. Previously, Mr. Mattson served as a Partner and Co-Head of the Global Industrials Group in Investment Banking at Goldman, Sachs & Co. from November 2002 through August 2012. Mr. Mattson joined Goldman Sachs in 1994, and served in a variety of positions before becoming Partner and Co-Head of the Global Industrials Group. Since his retirement from Goldman Sachs, Mr. Mattson has been a private investor involved in acquiring and growing middle market businesses. Mr. Mattson holds a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Duke University and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
We believe Mr. Mattson is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive professional and financial experience and his experience as a public company director.
W. Gilbert (Gil) West. Mr. West, 60, has served Chief Operating Officer of Cruise LLC, GM’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary, since January 2021, helping in the company’s progression towards commercialization. Prior to this, Mr.
West served in various leadership positions since he began his career with Delta Air Lines, Inc. (“Delta”) in March 2008 and, most recently, from February 2014 to October 2020, served as its Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, overseeing Delta’s worldwide operations, including 366 airports in 66 countries, 1,300 aircraft, 200 million customers per year, more than 70,000 employees and an annual budget of $16 billion. Prior to joining Delta, Mr. West served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Laidlaw Transit Services, a provider of transportation serves, from 2006 to 2007. Mr. West currently serves on the board of directors of Forward Air Corporation (NASDAQ: FWRD) and Genesis Park Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: GNPK). Mr. West has also been a member of the Brevard College Board of Trustees in North Carolina since October 2017 and previously served on the Board of Directors for the American Cancer Society and member of its Executive Leadership Council. Mr. West holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from North Carolina State University and a Master of Business Administration from National University.
We believe Mr. West is well qualified to serve on our Board of Directors because of his extensive professional experience in the transportation industry and serving as senior executive of a large public company overseeing its extensive operations.
Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports
Section 16(a) under the Exchange Act, requires our directors, executive officers, principal accounting officer and persons who beneficially own more than 10% percent of our common stock to file with the SEC reports of their ownership and reports of changes in their ownership of our common stock. To our knowledge, based solely upon our review of the copies of such reports and amendments to such reports with respect to the year ended December 31, 2020 and on written representations by our directors and executive officers, all required Section 16 reports under the Exchange Act for our directors, executive officers, principal accounting officer and beneficial owners of greater than 10% of our common stock were filed on a timely basis during the year ended December 31, 2020 or prior fiscal years other than Jonathan Campagna, Michael Moses and Enrico Palermo each of whom filed a Form 4 late and each reporting one transaction related to the withholding of shares of Company common stock to cover tax withholding obligation upon the monthly vesting of restricted stock units (“RSUs”).
Code of Business Conduct and Ethics
We have adopted a code of business conduct and ethics (the “Code of Conduct”) that applies to all of our directors, officers and employees, including our principal executive officer, principal financial officer, principal accounting officer or controller or persons performing similar functions. A copy of our Code of Conduct is available under the under the Governance section of the Investor Information page of our website at www.virgingalactic.com, or by writing to our Corporate Secretary at our offices at 166 North Roadrunner Parkway, Suite 1C, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88011. We intend to make any legally required disclosures regarding amendments to, or waivers of, provisions of our Code of Conduct on our website rather than by filing a Current Report on Form 8-K.
Audit Committee
Our audit committee consists of Dr. Austin and Messrs. Kreeger and Mattson,, with Mr. Mattson serving as chair. The Board of Directors has affirmatively determined that each member of the audit committee qualifies as independent under NYSE rules applicable to board members generally and under the NYSE rules and Exchange Act Rule 10A-3 specific to audit committee members. Our Board of Directors has also determined that each member of our audit committee is financial literate under the applicable NYSE rules and each of Dr. Austin and Mr. Mattson qualifies as an “audit committee financial expert,” as such term is defined in Item 407(d)(5) of Regulation S-K.

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ITEM 11. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
Item 11. Executive Compensation
Director Compensation
In 2020 we maintained a compensation program that consists of annual cash retainer fees and long-term equity awards for our non-employee directors who are not affiliated with us and/or the Virgin Group and SCH Sponsor Corp. The eligible directors in 2020 were Dr. Austin and Messrs. Ryans, Kreeger and Mattson. The 2020 Director Compensation Program consisted of the components described below.
In addition, on April 30, 2020, as a precautionary measure during this phase of COVID-19 national mobilization and recovery, each of these directors voluntarily agreed to a 20% reduction of his or her non-employee director cash compensation that otherwise would have been earned for the period from May 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020.
Cash Compensation
• Annual Retainer: $125,000
• Annual Committee Chair Retainer:
• Audit: $40,000
• Compensation: $15,000
• Nominating and Corporate Governance: $15,000
• Safety: $15,000
• Annual Committee Member (Non-Chair) Retainer:
• Audit: $20,000
• Compensation: $7,500
• Nominating and Corporate Governance: $7,500
• Safety: $7,500
The annual cash retainer will be paid in quarterly installments in arrears. Annual cash retainers will be pro-rated for any partial calendar quarter of service.
Equity Compensation
•Initial Grant to each eligible director who is initially elected or appointed to serve on our Board of Directors: A Restricted Stock Unit (the "RSU") award with an aggregate value of $150,000, which will vest as to one-third of the shares subject to the award on each anniversary of the grant date, subject to continued service.
•Annual Grant to each eligible director who is serving on our Board of Directors as of the date of the annual stockholders’ meeting: A Restricted Stock Unit (the "RSU") award with an aggregate value of $125,000, which will vest in full on the earlier of the one-year anniversary of the grant date and the date of the next annual meeting following the grant date, subject to continued service.
In addition, each equity award granted to the eligible directors under the Director Compensation Program will vest in full immediately prior to the occurrence of a change in control (as defined in the Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. 2019 Incentive
Award Plan (the “2019 Plan”)).
Compensation under the Director Compensation Program is subject to the annual limits on non-employee director compensation set forth in the 2019 Plan.
Director Compensation Table for Fiscal Year 2020
The following table contains information concerning the compensation of our non-employee directors in fiscal year 2020.
Name Fees Earned or Paid in Cash ($) Stock Award ($)(1)
All Other Compensation ($) Total ($)
Dr. Wanda Austin $145,286 $124,994 - $270,280
Craig Kreeger $142,229 $124,994 - $267,223
George Mattson $121,153 $124,994 - $246,147
Dr. James Ryans $153,161 $124,994 - $278,155
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(1) Amounts reflect the full grant-date fair value of stock awards granted during 2020 computed in accordance with ASC Topic 718, rather than the amounts paid to or realized by the named individual. We provide information regarding the assumptions used to calculate the value of all stock awards made to our directors in Note 13 in our consolidated financial statements included in this Annual Report. The table below shows the aggregate numbers of RSU awards held as of December 31, 2020 by each director.
Name Restricted Stock Units Outstanding at Fiscal Year End
Dr. Wanda Austin 24,864
Craig Kreeger 24,864
George Mattson 24,864
Dr. James Ryans 24,864
Compensation Committee Report
The compensation committee has discussed and reviewed the following Compensation Discussion and Analysis with management. Based upon this review and discussion, the compensation committee recommended to the Board of Directors that the Compensation Discussion and Analysis be included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
Submitted by the Compensation Committee of the Board of Directors:
Dr. Wanda Austin (Chair)
Adam Bain
George Mattson
EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION
COMPENSATION DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS
Executive Summary
This Compensation Discussion and Analysis describes our 2020 compensation program for our named executive officers, who were:
• Michael Colglazier, our Chief Executive Officer and President,
• George Whitesides, our former Chief Executive Officer and current Chief Space Officer,
• Jonathan Campagna, our Chief Financial Officer,
• Michael Moses, who serves as President, Missions and Safety, of GE, LLC,
• Michelle Kley, our Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary, and
• Enrico Palermo, our former President, The Spaceship Company and Chief Operating Officer.
In particular, this discussion and analysis provides an overview of our executive compensation philosophy, the overall objectives of our executive compensation program, how each element of our executive compensation program is designed to satisfy those objectives, and the policies underlying our 2020 executive compensation program and the compensation awarded to our named executive officers for 2020. The following discussion and analysis of compensation arrangements of our named executive officers should be read together with the compensation tables and related disclosures.
In July 2020, Michael Colglazier was appointed as our Chief Executive Officer and George Whitesides was appointed as Chief Space Officer. In addition, in December 2020 Mr. Palermo resigned as our President, The Spaceship Company and Chief Operating Officer.
Compensation Highlights
Our executive compensation program consists of fixed and variable pay, including cash and non-cash components. The key elements of our 2020 executive compensation program are as follows:
Compensation Element Key Features and Objectives
Base Salary • Reflects individual skills, experience, and overall responsibilities of the executive's position
• Attracts and retains talent by providing a stable and reliable source of income
Cash-Based Incentive Compensation • Rewards the achievement of corporate objectives and overall contributions towards achieving those objectives
Equity Based Compensation • Incentives our executives to create long-term stockholder value
• Aligns our executive's strategic objectives with those of our stockholders’ interests over the long-term
• Promotes retention and executive stock ownership
Compensation Program Objectives
The main objectives of the Company’s executive compensation program are to:
• Motivate, attract and retain highly qualified executives who are committed to the Company’s mission, performance and culture, by paying them competitively.
• Create a fair, reasonable and balanced compensation program that rewards executives’ performance and contributions to the Company’s short- and long-term business results, while closely aligning the interests of the executives with those of stockholders.
• Emphasize pay for performance, with a program that aligns financial and operational achievements.
We believe that the Company’s executive compensation program design features accomplish the following:
• Provide base salaries consistent with each executive’s responsibilities so that they are not motivated to take excessive risks to achieve a reasonable level of financial security.
• Ensure a significant portion of each executive’s compensation tied to the future share performance of the Company, thus aligning their interests with those of our stockholders.
• Utilize an equity compensation and vesting periods for equity awards encourage executives to remain employed and focus on sustained share price appreciation.
• Utilize a mix between cash and equity compensation designed to encourage strategies and actions that are in the long-term best interests of the Company.
Role of the Compensation Committee, Management and Compensation Consultant
The compensation committee has ultimate responsibility for compensation-related decisions and, in 2020, the compensation committee retained an independent consultant, Mercer, for the months in the 2020 calendar year of January through August. Meridian Compensation Partners, LLC was retained by the compensation committee as an independent consultant for the months of September through December of 2020 to assist the committee in its evaluation of the compensation provided to our executive officers. In addition, the compensation committee's independent consultant generally attends compensation committee meetings and provides information, research and analysis pertaining to executive compensation and governance as requested by the compensation committee.
Other than advising the compensation committee, as described above, neither Mercer nor Meridian Compensation Partners provided any services to the Company in 2020. The compensation committee has considered the independence of both Mercer and Meridian Compensation Partners, consistent with the requirements of the NYSE, and has determined that Mercer and Meridian Compensation Partners is independent. Further, pursuant to SEC rules, the compensation committee conducted a conflicts of interest assessment and determined there is no conflict of interest resulting from retaining Mercer and Meridian Compensation Partners in the year 2020. The Compensation Committee intends to reassess the independence of its advisor at least annually.
Stockholder Say-on-Pay Vote
During 2019, we became a large accelerated filer and exited the “emerging growth company” status as defined in the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act. As such, our stockholders had their first opportunity to cast an advisory vote to approve our named executive officers’ compensation at the 2019 annual meeting. Approximately 99% of votes cast were voted in favor of our say-on-pay proposal, which we believe affirms our stockholders’ support of our approach to our executive compensation program. In addition, at our 2019 annual meeting our stockholders had their first opportunity to cast an advisory vote on the frequency of our say-on-pay proposals, and the majority of our stockholders approved holding such votes on an annual basis. Our next say-on-pay vote will occur at our 2021 annual meeting of stockholders. The Company intends to consider the outcome of the say-on-pay votes when making compensation decisions regarding our named executive officers.
Elements of Our Executive Compensation Program
The Company’s primary components of compensation for its executive officers have been base salary, incentive cash bonuses and grants of long-term equity-based incentive compensation. In 2020, the Company did not have a pre-established policy or target for the allocation between cash and non-cash incentive compensation or between short-term and long-term compensation, although the Company did attempt to keep total cash compensation within the Company’s fiscal year budget while reinforcing its pay-for-performance philosophy.
Base Salaries
The base salaries of our named executive officers are an important part of their total compensation package, and are intended to provide a fixed component of compensation reflecting the executive’s skill set, experience, role and responsibilities.
On April 30, 2020, as a precautionary measure during this phase of COVID-19 national mobilization and recovery, our executive officers, including our named executive officers, voluntarily agreed to a temporary reduction in their annual base salaries.
The annual base salaries earned for the period from May 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020 for Mr. Whitesides was reduced by 20%, and for Messrs. Campagna, Moses and Palermo, Ms. Kley, and our other executive officers' were reduced by 10%.
Additionally, for the same reason described herein, each member of our Board of Directors who is eligible to receive compensation for services on the Board of Directors and the committees thereof voluntarily agreed to a 20% reduction of his or her non-employee director cash compensation that was earned for the period from May 11, 2020 through June 30, 2020.
The following table sets forth the base salaries for each of our named executive officers that were approved for 2020.
Named Executive Officer Approved 2020 Base
Salary ($)
Michael Colglazier 1,000,000
George Whitesides 450,000
Jonathan Campagna 350,000
Michael Moses 350,000
Michelle Kley 350,000
Enrico Palermo 425,000
Cash-Based Incentive Compensation
Colglazier Signing Bonus
In connection with joining our company, Mr. Colglazier received a one-time cash bonus equal to $1,000,000, one-half of which was paid upon joining the company, and one-half of which will be paid following the first anniversary of his employment commencement date, subject to his continued employment.
2020 Annual Cash Bonuses
Each of our named executive officers participated in 2020 Executive Annual Cash Incentive Program, which was our annual cash bonus program.
Bonuses under the program may be earned based on the achievement of corporate performance objectives and individual performance. The Company's corporate performance objectives included achievement of five pre-established goals with equal weighting of 20% for each goal. The pre-established goals were set in the first quarter of 2020, and related to overall safety performance, commercialization, vehicle test flight readiness, and overall financial and internal program performance at the Company and/or subsidiary (GE, LLC or Galactic Co., LLC (formerly known as TSC, LLC)) levels.
The maximum bonus that may be paid under the program to any executive is 120% of his or her target bonus opportunity for 2020; however, Mr. Colglazier's maximum bonus opportunity is 150% of his target bonus opportunity.
The 2020 target bonus opportunities for the named executive officers are as follows:
Named Executive Officer Target Bonus Opportunity (% of Base Salary)
Michael Colglazier(1)
100%
George Whitesides 50%
Jonathan Campagna 50%
Michael Moses 50%
Michelle Kley 50%
Enrico Palermo(1)
50%
(1) Bonus opportunity will be pro-rated to reflect partial year served in 2020.
The compensation committee has not yet made determinations regarding bonus payments with respect to 2020, but anticipates that such determinations will be made in the first quarter of 2021. Mr. Palermo remains eligible to receive a 2020 bonus based on achievement of performance objectives set forth above, and which will be pro-rated based on his time employed in 2020.
Milestone-Based Cash Incentive Plan
The VG Companies currently maintain a Cash Incentive Plan adopted in 2017 in which certain of the named executive officers participate. These named executive officers are eligible to receive bonuses under the cash incentive plan upon the VG Companies’ achievement of three specified performance objectives (each such objective a “qualifying milestone”). Payment of bonuses pursuant to the cash incentive plan, if any, is contingent upon the applicable named executive officer’s continued employment through the applicable payment date.
The first qualifying milestone was not achieved under the cash incentive plan. In connection with the Virgin Galactic Business
Combination, the second qualifying milestone was achieved in 2019. In addition, the third qualifying milestone was amended such that the amount payable upon achievement of the third qualifying milestone will be conditioned upon the achievement of a cash flow goal prior to, or as of, the end of calendar year 2027, subject to the executive’s continued employment.
The following table shows the remaining bonus opportunity that may become payable upon achieving the amended third qualifying milestone.
Named Executive Officer Amended Third Qualifying
Milestone Opportunity ($)
George Whitesides....................................................................................................................................... 2,000,000
Jonathan Campagna 78,125
Michael Moses 1,000,000
Mr. Whitesides is also eligible to receive a milestone bonus of a lump sum cash payment equal to $500,000, payable within 30 days following a commercial launch.
Equity Compensation
We maintain the 2019 Incentive Award Plan, under which we may grant cash and equity incentive awards to directors, employees and consultants of our Company and our affiliates, to enable us to attract, retain services of these individuals, which we believe are essential to our long-term success.
Anniversary Awards
In 2019, we approved equity awards to our named executive officers in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, in the form of stock options and RSUs. RSU awards were granted to the named executive officers in connection with the closing, and stock options were granted to each named executive officer as to 50% of the award in connection with the closing; the remaining 50% of the award was granted on the first anniversary of the closing (the “Anniversary Awards”), subject to continued service through the applicable grant date. In 2020, our compensation committee determined to grant the remaining Anniversary Awards in the form of both a stock option and an RSU award, each equating to 50% of the number of shares subject to such remaining portion of the award; in addition, it was decided to remove the $10 per share vesting condition that previously applied to the RSU awards granted in connection with the closing.
The following table sets forth the Anniversary Awards that were granted in 2020 (but does not include any other awards granted in 2020).
Named Executive Officer Anniversary Awards
(Restricted Stock Units)
Granted in 2020 Anniversary Awards
(Stock Options)
Granted in 2020
George Whitesides(1)
320,840 320,840
Jonathan Campagna(2)
152,781 152,781
Michael Moses(2)
229,171 229,172
Enrico Palermo(2)
229,171 229,172
_____________
(1)Mr. Whitesides’ Anniversary Awards were granted in July 2020 in connection with his transition to Chief Space Officer.
(2)The other eligible executives’ for the Anniversary Awards were granted in October 2020.
The Anniversary awards that were granted will vest and become exercisable over a four year period. Stock options and RSU awards granted in connection with the closing will vest (and become exercisable, as applicable) as to 25% of the shares subject to each award on the first anniversary of the closing and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. Anniversary Awards granted to Messrs. Campagna, Moses and Palermo will vest (and become exercisable, as applicable) along the same schedule, except the vesting dates will be keyed off of the grant date (rather than the date of the closing). Mr. Whiteside’s stock option is scheduled to vest in equal monthly installments over a two-year period following the July 2020 grant date, and his RSU award is scheduled to vest in equal quarterly installments over the same period, in each case subject to continued service.
Colglazier Awards
In connection with joining our company, we granted to Mr. Colglazier a stock option to purchase 500,000 shares, a restricted stock unit award covering 70,000 shares (the “Signing RSU Award”) and a second RSU award covering 500,000 shares (the “Additional RSU Award”).
Mr. Colglazier’s stock option is scheduled to vest and become exercisable in substantially equal monthly installments over the 60 months following his employment commencement date. Half of the Signing RSU Award was vested as of Mr. Colglazier’s employment start date and half is scheduled to vest on the one year anniversary of such date. The Additional RSU Award is scheduled to vest as to 25% of the RSUs subject to the award on the one year anniversary of his employment commencement
date and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal quarterly installments over the following 12 quarters. The vesting of each of Mr. Colglazier’s awards subject to his continued service.
Palermo Awards
In connection with his appointment as Chief Operating Officer, in January 2020 we granted to Mr. Palermo a stock option to purchase an aggregate of 145,828 shares and an RSU award covering 55,000 shares. These awards were scheduled to vest as to 25% of the shares subject to the award on the one year anniversary of the his appointment and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. Mr. Palermo forfeited the unvested portions of these awards when he resigned in December 2020.
Other Elements of Compensation
Retirement Plans
In 2020, the named executive officers participated in a 401(k) retirement savings plan. The Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, allows eligible employees to defer a portion of their compensation, within prescribed limits, on a pre-tax basis through contributions to the 401(k) plan. In 2020, contributions made by participants in the 401(k) plan were matched up to a specified percentage of the employee contributions on behalf of the named executive officers. These matching contributions are fully vested as of the date on which the contribution is made.
Employee Benefits and Perquisites
Health/Welfare Plans. In 2020, the named executive officers had the opportunity to participate in health and welfare plans, including but not limited to the following:
• medical, dental and vision benefits;
• medical and dependent care flexible spending accounts;
• short-term and long-term disability insurance;
• life insurance; and
• vacation and paid holidays.
Perquisites. In 2020, Mr. Palermo received a $3,692 car allowance and an executive annual physical with an additional benefit of $3,976.
Mr. Colglazier received $15,000 in connection with the negotiation of his employment agreement and, subject to availability, he will be entitled to join a spaceflight in connection with the performance of his duties (on a tax grossed-up basis to him) and may invite three guests to join a spaceflight.
Mr. Whitesides received $11,201 for legal fees incurred in connection with the negotiation of the amended employment agreement. In addition, each of Mr. Whitesides and his wife is entitled to a company paid space flight.
We believe the perquisites described above are necessary and appropriate to provide a competitive compensation package to the named executive officers.
Severance and Change in Control-Based Compensation
We have entered into employment agreements with each of our named executive officers that provides for severance upon a termination of employment without cause or for good reason. We believe that job security and terminations of employment, both within and outside of the change of control context, are causes of significant concern and uncertainty for our executive officers and that providing protections to our executive officers in these contexts is therefore appropriate in order to alleviate these concerns and allow the executives to remain focused on their duties and responsibilities to our Company in all situations. These are described and quantified below under “Potential Payments Upon Termination or Change in Control.”
Tax and Accounting Considerations
As a general matter, our Board of Directors and the compensation committee review and consider the various tax and accounting implications of compensation programs we utilize.
Code Section 409A
Section 409A of the Code, or Section 409A, requires that “nonqualified deferred compensation” be deferred and paid under plans or arrangements that satisfy the requirements of the statute with respect to the timing of deferral elections, timing of payments and certain other matters. Failure to satisfy these requirements can expose employees and other service providers to accelerated income tax liabilities, penalty taxes and interest on their vested compensation under such plans. Accordingly, as a general matter, it is our intention to design and administer our compensation and benefits plans and arrangements for all of our employees and other service providers, including our named executive officers, so that they are either exempt from, or satisfy the requirements of, Section 409A.
Code Section 280G
Section 280G of the Code, or Section 280G, disallows a tax deduction with respect to excess parachute payments to certain executives of companies which undergo a change of control. In addition, Section 4999 of the Code imposes a 20% excise tax on the individual with respect to the excess parachute payment. Parachute payments are compensation linked to or triggered by a change of control and may include, but are not limited to, bonus payments, severance payments, certain fringe benefits, and payments and acceleration of vesting from long-term incentive plans including stock options, restricted stock and other equity-based compensation. Excess parachute payments are parachute payments that exceed a threshold determined under Section 280G based on the executive’s prior compensation. In approving the compensation arrangements for our named executive officers, our Board of Directors or compensation committee considers all elements of the cost to the Company of providing such compensation, including the potential impact of Section 280G. However, the Board of Directors or compensation committee may, in its judgment, authorize compensation arrangements that could give rise to loss of deductibility under Section 280G and the imposition of excise taxes under Section 4999 when it believes that such arrangements are appropriate to attract and retain executive talent.
Accounting for Stock-Based Compensation
We follow the Financial Accounting Standards Board’s Accounting Standards Codification Topic 718, or ASC Topic 718, for our stock-based compensation awards. ASC Topic 718 requires companies to calculate the grant date “fair value” of their stock-based awards using a variety of assumptions. ASC Topic 718 also requires companies to recognize the compensation cost of their stock-based awards in their income statements over the period that an employee is required to render service in exchange for the award. Grants of stock options and RSUs under our equity incentive award plan are accounted for under ASC Topic 718. Our Board of Directors or compensation committee will regularly consider the accounting implications of significant compensation decisions, especially in connection with decisions that relate to our equity incentive award plan and programs. As accounting standards change, we may revise certain programs to appropriately align accounting expenses of our equity awards with our overall executive compensation philosophy and objectives.
SUMMARY COMPENSATION TABLE
The following table sets forth information concerning the compensation of the named executive officers for the years ended December 31, 2020, 2019 and 2018.
Name and Principal Positions
Year Salary
($)(1)
Bonus
($) Stock
Awards
($)(4)
Option
Awards
($)(4)
Non-Equity
Incentive Plan
Compensation
($)(5)
All Other
Compensation
($)(7)
Total
($)
Michael Colglazier 2020 442,308 500,000 (3)
13,098,600 7,190,000 - 22,637 21,253,545
Chief Executive Officer(2)
George Whitesides 2020 454,500 - 9,581,221 4,838,267 - 29,729 14,903,717
Former Chief Executive Officer, Current Chief Space Officer 2019 346,346 1,536,863 1,384,605 4,988,505 48,383 19,051 8,323,753
2018 350,673 93,850 - - - 18,685 463,208
Jonathan Campagna 2020 358,481 - 3,975,810 1,891,429 - 18,403 6,244,123
Chief Financial Officer 2019 245,019 468,115 659,337 2,375,476 25,026 18,992 3,791,965
Michael Moses 2020 358,615 - 5,963,711 2,837,149 - 18,504 9,177,979
President, Space Missions and Safety, GE, LLC 2019 308,899 1,039,237 989,009 3,563,216 35,145 65,566 6,001,072
2018 300,986 68,850 - - - 18,696 388,532
Michelle Kley 2020 358,481 - - - - 17,892 376,373
Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary - - - - -
Enrico Palermo(6)
2020 501,050 - 6,717,211 4,213,766 - 24,968 11,456,995
Former Chief Operating Officer 2019 312,625 774,237 989,009 3,563,213 35,549 20,391 5,695,024
2018 297,684 68,850 - - - 16,702 383,236
(1) Salaries for each named executive officer other than Mr. Colglazier, who joined July 2020, reflect voluntary reductions to the base salaries paid May through June 2020.
(2) In July 2020, Mr. Colglazier become our Chief Executive Officer and Mr. Whitesides transitioned to become our Chief Space Officer.
(3)With respect to 2020, the amount for Mr. Colglazier represents one half of his signing bonus.
(4) The amounts shown in this column represent the grant date fair value RSUs and stock options awarded to the named executive officers in the applicable year, computed in accordance with the requirements of FASB ASC Topic 718, but excluding any impact of forfeitures as required by SEC regulations. We provide information regarding the assumptions used to calculate the value of all option and RSU awards made to executives in Note 13 to our financial statements included in our Form 10-K. In addition, with respect to 2020, the amounts include the incremental fair value associated with the modification of December 2019 RSU's granted to Messrs. Whitesides, Campagna, Moses and Palermo (to remove a stock price goal as a vesting condition).
(5) For 2020, The Compensation Committee has not yet made determinations regarding bonus payments with respect to 2020, but anticipates that such determinations will be made in the first quarter of 2021.
(6) Mr. Palermo departed from our company on December 4, 2020. Mr. Palermo's 2020 Salary includes his unused accrued vacation, paid out at the time of termination in December 2020.
(7) For 2020, amounts in this column include the amounts set forth in the table below:
Named Executive Officer 401(k) Plan
Contribution
($)(a)
AD&D
Premium
($) Group Term Life
Premium
($) Car Allowance
($) Legal Fee
Reimbursement
($) Annual Physical ($)
Michael Colglazier 6,923 126 588 - 15,000 -
George Whitesides 17,100 252 1,176 - 11,201 -
Jonathan Campagna 17,100 147 1,156 - - -
Michael Moses 17,100 248 1,156 - - -
Michelle Kley 16,478 258 1,156 - - -
Enrico Palermo 15,881 252 1,176 3,692 - 3,976
(a) Amounts include safe harbor and employer matching contributions made in 2020.
GRANTS OF PLAN-BASED AWARDS IN FISCAL 2020
Estimated Future
Payout Under
Non-Equity Incentive Plan
Awards
All Other
Stock
Awards
Number of
Shares of All Other
Stock
Awards
Number of
Securities
Underlying Exercise or
Base Price of
Option
Awards Grant Date
Fair Value of Stock and Option
Awards
Name Grant Date Threshold ($) Target ($)(1)
Maximum (#)(2)
Stock (#) Options (#) ($)/Sh) ($)(3)
Michael Colglazier July 20, 2020 - - - 500,000 - - 11,490,000
July 20, 2020 - - - 70,000 - - 1,608,600
July 20, 2020 - - - - 500,000 22.98 7,190,000
First Qtr. 2020 226,027 452,054 678,081 - - - -
George Whitesides March 10, 2020 - - - - - - 2,208,318(4)
July 20, 2020 - - - 320,840 - - 7,372,903
July 20, 2020 - - - - 320,840 22.98 4,838,267
First Qtr. 2020 225,000 225,000 270,000 - - - -
Jonathan Campagna March 10, 2020 - - - - - 1,051,582(4)
October 25, 2020 - - - 152,781 - - 2,924,228
October 25, 2020 - - - - 152,781 19.14 1,891,429
First Qtr. 2020 175,000 175,000 210,000 - - - -
Michael Moses March 10, 2020 - - - - - 1,577,378(4)
October 25, 2020 - - - 229,171 - - 4,386,333
October 25, 2020 - - - - 229,172 19.14 2,837,149
First Qtr. 2020 175,000 175,000 210,000 - - - -
Michelle Kley First Qtr. 2020 175,000 175,000 210,000 - - - -
Enrico Palermo January 13, 2020 - - - - 145,828 13.70 1,376,616
January 13, 2020 - - - 55,000 - - 753,500
March 10, 2020 - - - - - - 1,577,378(4)
October 25, 2020 - - - - 229,172 19.14 2,837,149
October 25, 2020 - - - 229,171 - - 4,386,333
First Qtr. 2020 212,500 212,500 255,000 - - - -
(1) The amounts in this column represent the value of the portion of the annual bonus that each named executive officer was eligible to earn in 2020 based on achievement of designated Company performance objectives. For further discussion of the 2020 annual bonuses see “Compensation Discussion and Analysis-Cash-Based Incentive Compensation - 2020 Executive Annual Cash Incentive Program.”
(2)The amounts in this column represent the value of the maximum target bonus opportunity that each named executive officer was eligible to earn in 2020 based on the achievements of designated Company performance objectives and individual performance. For further discussion of the 2020 annual bonuses see "Compensation Discussion and Analysis - Cash-Based Incentive Compensation - 2020 Executive Annual Cash Incentive Program.
(3) The amounts in the table reflect the full grant date fair value of time-vesting option and RSU awards computed in accordance with the requirements of ASC Topic 718, but excluding any impact of forfeitures as required by SEC regulations. We provide information regarding the assumptions used to calculate the value of all option and RSU awards made to executives in Note 13 in our consolidated financial statements included elsewhere in our Form 10-K.
(4) The amounts reflect the incremental fair value associated with the modification of December 2019 RSU's granted to Messrs. Whitesides, Campagna, Moses and Palermo (to remove a stock price goal as a vesting condition).
Narrative to Summary Compensation Table and Grants of Plan-Based Awards Table
The following is a description of the employment agreements we have entered into with our named executive officers.
General Description of Employment Agreements
Each agreement will continue until terminated in accordance with its terms, and provides for an annual base salary, target annual bonus and eligibility to participate in customary health, welfare and fringe benefit plans, provided by the Company to its executive officers.
Pursuant to the employment agreements, each of Messrs. Whitesides, Campagna, Moses and Palermo were entitled, in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, to receive stock options to purchase shares of the Company’s common stock and an RSU award covering shares of the Company’s common stock. The RSUs were granted in connection with the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, and were effective as of the date of the filing of the Form S-8 for the 2019 Plan. Half of the stock options were granted to the executives at the closing and half were expected to be granted on the first anniversary of the closing; however, as described above, the second half was granted in the form of both stock options and RSU awards.
Awards granted in connection with the closing will vest as to 25% of the shares subject to the award on the one year anniversary of the closing and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. Awards granted on the first anniversary of the closing will vest along the same schedule, except the vesting dates will be keyed off of the grant date (rather than the closing). However, as described above, Mr. Whiteside’s stock option is scheduled to vest in equal monthly installments over a two-year period following the July 2020 grant date, and his RSU award is scheduled to vest in equal quarterly installments over the same period, in each case subject to continued service.
The employment agreements also contain customary confidentiality and non-solicitation provisions, and also includes a “best pay” provision under Section 280G of the Code, pursuant to which any “parachute payments” that become payable to the executive will either be paid in full or reduced, so that such payments are not subject to the excise tax under Section 4999 of the Code, whichever results in the better after-tax treatment to the executive.
Michael Colglazier Employment Agreement
In July 2020 we entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Colglazier. Mr. Colglazier’s service pursuant to the employment agreement will continue for a period of five years, unless earlier terminated in accordance with its terms. Pursuant to his employment agreement, Mr. Colglazier serves as the Chief Executive Officer and President of the Company and reports directly to the Company’s Board of Directors. During the employment period, the Company is obligated to cause Mr. Colglazier to be nominated to stand for election to the Board of Directors, unless an event constituting “cause” has occurred and not been cured or Mr. Colglazier has issued a termination notice.
Under the employment agreement, Mr. Colglazier is entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $1,000,000, subject to annual review by the Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and to increase in its discretion, and is eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 100% of his then-current annual base salary, ranging from a minimum threshold of 50% to a maximum threshold of 150% based on performance objectives are achieved (respectively). The actual amount of any annual bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof.
Mr. Colglazier also received a one-time cash bonus equal to $1,000,000, one-half paid following his employment start date and one-half to be paid following the first anniversary of his employment start date, subject to his continued employment. In
addition, Mr. Colglazier (i) was entitled to receive reimbursement of (or Company-paid) legal fees of $15,000 in connection with the negotiation of his employment agreement and (ii) subject to availability, will be entitled to join a spaceflight in connection with the performance of his duties (on a tax grossed-up basis to him) and may invite three guests to join a spaceflight.
In connection with joining our company, we granted to Mr. Colglazier a stock option to purchase 500,000 shares, an RSU award covering 70,000 shares (the “Signing RSU Award”) and a second RSU award covering 500,000 shares (the “Additional RSU Award”).
Mr. Colglazier’s stock option is scheduled to vest and become exercisable in substantially equal monthly installments over the 60 months following his employment commencement date. Half of the Signing RSU Award was vested as of Mr. Colglazier’s employment start date and half is scheduled to vest on the one year anniversary of such date. The Additional RSU Award is scheduled to vest as to 25% of the RSUs subject to the award on the one year anniversary of his employment commencement date and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal quarterly installments over the following 12 quarters. The vesting of each of Mr. Colglazier’s awards subject to his continued service.
George Whitesides Amended and Restated Employment Agreement
On July 20, 2020, Mr. Whitesides transitioned from the role of our Chief Executive Officer to become our Chief Space Officer. In connection with his appointment as our Chief Space Officer, Mr. Whitesides and the Company entered into an amended and restated employment agreement, which supersedes and replaces his prior employment agreement.
Under the amended employment agreement, Mr. Whitesides is entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $450,000, subject to increase at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and is eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 50% of Mr. Whitesides’ then-current annual base salary. The actual amount of any such bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof. Mr. Whitesides also is eligible to earn a one-time cash bonus equal to $500,000, payable within 30 days following a commercial launch, subject to his employment through the payment date. In addition, Mr. Whitesides is entitled to join a spaceflight in connection with the performance of his duties, and his wife is entitled to join a spaceflight.
Jonathan Campagna Employment Agreement
On October 25, 2019, we entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Campagna. Pursuant to his employment agreement, Mr. Campagna serves as the Chief Financial Officer of the Company and reports directly to our Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Campagna’s service pursuant to the employment agreement will continue until terminated in accordance with its terms. Under the employment agreement, Mr. Campagna is entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $350,000, subject to increase at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and is eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 50% of Mr. Campagna’s then-current annual base salary. The actual amount of any such bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof.
Michael Moses Employment Agreement
On October 25, 2019, we entered into an employment agreement with Mr. Moses. Pursuant to his employment agreement, Mr. Moses serves as the President, Missions and Safety, of GE, LLC and reports directly to our Chief Executive Officer. Under the employment agreement, Mr. Moses is entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $350,000, subject to increase at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and is eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 50% of Mr. Moses then-current annual base salary. The actual amount of any such bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof.
Enrico Palermo Employment Agreement
Prior to his departure in December 2020, we were party to an employment agreement with Mr. Palermo, which was amended January 13, 2020. Pursuant to his amended employment agreement, Mr. Palermo served as the Chief Operating Officer of Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. and President of Galactic Co., LLC and reported directly to our Chief Executive Officer. Under his amended employment agreement, Mr. Palermo was entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $425,000, subject to
increase at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and was eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 50% of Mr. Palermo’s then-current annual base salary. The actual amount of any such bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof. Mr. Palermo also was entitled to an annual vehicle allowance of $3,600. In addition, Mr. Palermo was entitled to receive a $60,000 bonus in connection with certain events related to entering into his amended employment agreement.
Pursuant to his amended employment agreement Mr. Palermo received, in connection with his appointment as Chief Operating Officer, an additional award of stock options to purchase an aggregate of 291,656 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Palermo Options”) and an RSU award covering 55,000 shares of the Company’s common stock (the “Palermo RSUs” and, together with the Palermo Option, the “Palermo Equity Awards”). The Palermo RSUs and half of the Palermo Options were granted on January 13, 2020; the other half of the Palermo Options were to be granted on January 13, 2021, subject to Mr. Palermo’s continued employment through the applicable grant date. The Palermo Equity Awards granted on January 13, 2020 will vest as to 25% of the shares subject to the award on the one year anniversary of the grant date and as to the remaining 75% in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date. Palermo Equity Awards eligible to be granted on January 13, 2021 included a similar four-year vesting schedule from and after the grant date.
Michelle Kley Employment Agreement
On December 2, 2019, we entered into an employment agreement with Ms. Kley. Pursuant to her employment agreement, Ms. Kley serves as the Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary and reports directly to our Chief Executive Officer. Under the employment agreement, Ms. Kley is entitled to receive an initial annual base salary of $350,000, subject to increase at the discretion of the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof and is eligible to receive an annual performance bonus targeted at 50% of Ms. Kley’s then-current annual base salary. The actual amount of any such bonus will be determined by reference to the attainment of applicable Company and/or individual performance objectives, as determined by the Company’s Board of Directors or a subcommittee thereof.
OUTSTANDING EQUITY AWARDS AT FISCAL YEAR-END
The following table summarizes the number of shares of common stock underlying outstanding equity incentive plan awards for each named executive officer as of December 31, 2020.
Option Awards Stock Awards
Name Numbers of
Securities
Underlying Unexercised
Options (#)
Exercisable Number of
Securities
Underlying
Unexercised
Options (#)
Unexercisable
Option
Exercise
Price
($) Option
Expiration
Date
Number of
Shares or
Units
of Stock That
Have Not
Vested
(#) Market
Value of
Shares or
Units of
Stock That
Have Not
Vested ($)(1)
Michael Colglazier 41,666 458,334(2)
22.98 7/20/30
35,000(3)
830,550
- - - - 500,000(4)
11,865,000
George Whitesides 187,157 454,524(5)
11.79 10/25/29
138,014(6)
3,275,072
66,841 253,999(7)
22.98 7/20/30
280,735(8)
6,661,842
Jonathan Campagna 89,122 216,440(5)
11.79 10/25/29
65,721(6)
1,559,559
- 152,781(9)
19.14 10/25/30
152,781(10)
3,625,493
Michael Moses 133,683 324,660(5)
11.79 10/25/29
98,582(6)
2,339,351
- 229,172(9)
19.14 10/25/30 -
229,171(10)
5,438,228
Michelle Kley 75,000 225,000(11)
7.46 12/02/29 - - -
- - - - - - -
Enrico Palermo 124,134 - 11.79 10/25/29 - -
________________
(1) The market value of shares of our common stock that have not vested is calculated based on the closing trading price of our common stock ($23.73) as reported on the NYSE on December 31, 2020.
(2) This stock option vests and becomes exercisable in substantially equal monthly installments over the 60-month period following Mr. Colglazier’s employment commencement date, July 20, 2020, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(3) This RSU award vests in full on July 20, 2021, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(4) This RSU award vests as to 25% of the restricted stock units on July 20, 2021 and in substantially equal quarterly installments over the following 12 quarters, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(5) This stock option has vested as to 25% of the shares underlying the option on October 25, 2020, and the remaining 75% of the underlying shares will vest in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(6) This RSU award vested as to 25% of the restricted stock units on October 25, 2020, and as to the remaining 75% of the underlying shares in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(7) This stock option vests and becomes exercisable in 24 substantially equal installments on each of the 24 monthly anniversaries, following the grant date, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(8) This RSU award vests in substantially equal quarterly installments over the two-year period following the grant date, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(9) This stock option will vest and become exercisable with respect to 25% of the shares underlying the option on October 25, 2021, and as to the remaining 75% of the underlying shares will vest in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(10) This RSU award vested as to 25% of the restricted stock units on October 25, 2021, and as to the remaining 75% of the underlying shares in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
(11) This stock option will vest and become exercisable with respect to 25% of the shares underlying the option on the first anniversary of the grant date, December 31, 2019 and as to the remaining 75% of the underlying shares, in substantially equal monthly installments over the following 36 months, subject to continued service through the applicable vesting date.
2020 OPTION EXERCISES AND STOCK VESTED
The following table shows the number of shares of common stock acquired by each Named Executive Officer during 2020 upon the exercise of stock options and the vesting of RSUs during 2020.
Option Awards Stock Awards
Name Number of Shares
Acquired on Exercise
(#) Value Realized on
Exercised ($)(1)
Number of
Shares
Acquired on Vesting
(#) Value
Realized on
Vesting
($)(1)
Michael Colglazier - - 35,000 $ 804,300
George Whitesides - - 56,830 $ 1,147,278
Jonathan Campagna - - 27,062 $ 546,324
Michael Moses - - 40,593 $ 819,485
Michelle Kley - - - $ -
Enrico Palermo - - 37,693 $ 744,520
(1) Represents the amounts realized based on the fair market value of our stock on the exercise or vesting date.
POTENTIAL PAYMENTS UPON TERMINATION OR CHANGE IN CONTROL
In accordance with SEC rules, the following table summarizes the payments that would be made to certain of our named executive officers upon the occurrence of certain qualifying terminations of employment, assuming such named executive officer’s termination of employment with the Company occurred on December 31, 2020 and, where relevant, that a change of control of the Company occurred on December 31, 2020. Amounts shown in the table below do not include (1) accrued but unpaid salary and (2) other benefits earned or accrued by the named executive officers during his employment that are available to all salaried employees, such as accrued vacation).
We have entered into certain agreements with each of our named executive officers that provide our named executive officers with severance protections. The employment agreements provide that the named executive officers will be eligible for severance benefits in certain circumstances following a termination of employment without cause or with good reason, whether or not in connection with a change in control.
Under his employment agreement, if Mr. Colglazier experiences a “qualifying termination” of employment, then, in addition to any accrued amounts, he will be entitled to receive the following severance payments and benefits:
•A cash severance amount equal to the sum of (i) his annual base salary then in effect and (ii) his target annual bonus, multiplied by (A) 1.0 if the termination date occurs after the second anniversary of the employment start date or (B) 2.0 if the termination date occurs on or before the second anniversary of the employment start date. The multiplier also
will equal 2.0 if the termination date occurs during the 24-month period following a “change in control” (as defined in the 2019 Plan) of the Company.
•Pro-rated annual bonus for the year of termination.
•Company-subsidized healthcare coverage for 12 - 18 months after the termination date.
•Accelerated vesting of any then-outstanding Company equity awards that vest based solely on the passage of time. The accelerated vesting will cover the number of shares or RSUs that would have vested during the 12-month period following the termination date (or, if the termination occurs on or before the second anniversary of the employment start date, the 24-month period). However, if the termination occurs during the 24-month period following a change in control, then such equity awards will vest in full.
•Continued opportunity to receive the spaceflight described above (but not if his employment terminates due to his death or disability).
A “qualifying termination” includes a termination of Mr. Colglazier’s employment (i) by the Company without “cause”, (ii) by Mr. Colglazier for “good reason” (as defined in the employment agreement), (iii) due to Mr. Colglazier’s death or disability or (iv) by reason of the Company’s non-renewal of the employment agreement at the end of its term.
Under the employment agreements for Messrs. Campagna and Moses, and Ms. Kley, if the executive’s employment is terminated by the Company without “cause,” or by the executive for “good reason” (each, as defined in the employment agreement, and referred to herein as a qualifying termination) then the executive will be entitled to receive the following severance payments and benefits:
• an amount equal to 0.5 times the sum of (a) the executive’s annual base salary then in effect and (b) his target annual bonus amount; and
• continued healthcare coverage for 6 months after the termination date.
However, if either such termination of employment occurs on or within 24 months following a “change in control” (as defined in the 2019 Plan), then the executive instead will be entitled to receive the following severance payments and benefits:
• an amount equal to 1.0 times the sum of (a) the executive’s annual base salary then in effect and (b) his target annual bonus amount;
• continued healthcare coverage for 12 months after the termination date; and
• full accelerated vesting of all outstanding and unvested time-based vesting equity awards.
Under his employment agreement as in effect on December 31, 2020, if Mr. Whitesides experiences a “qualifying termination” of employment, then, in addition to any accrued amounts, he will be entitled to receive the following severance payments and benefits:
• A cash severance amount equal to 1.0 times the sum of (i) his annual base salary then in effect and (ii) his target annual bonus. The multiplier will equal 1.5 if the termination date occurs during the 24-month period following a "change in control" (as defined in the 2019 Plan) of the Company.
• Company subsidized healthcare coverage for 12 - 18 months after the termination date.
• Accelerated vesting of any then outstanding Company equity awards that vest based solely on the passage of time.
• Continued opportunity to receive the commercial flight bonus and the spaceflight described above.
A “qualifying termination” includes a termination of Mr. Whitesides’ employment (i) by the Company without “cause” (as defined in the amended employment agreement), (ii) by Mr. Whitesides for “good reason” (as defined in the amended employment agreement) or (iii) by Mr. Whitesides for any reason after November 1, 2020.
The severance payments and benefits described above are subject to the executive’s execution and non-revocation of a general release of claims in favor of the Company and continued compliance with customary confidentiality and non-solicitation requirements, then, in addition to any accrued amounts. Mr. Palermo departed from our Company in December
2020 and did not receive any severance payments or benefits; however, he remains eligible to receive a pro-rata bonus under our 2020 annual bonus program.
Name
Benefit Qualifying
Termination ($) Change in Control
with Qualifying
Termination ($)
Michael Colglazier Cash Payment 4,452,054 4,452,054
Vesting of Equity Awards 6,575,520 19,885,550
Value of Benefits 45,134 45,134
Total(1)
11,072,708 24,382,738
George Whitesides Cash Payment 675,000 1,012,500
Vesting of Equity Awards 18,894,774 18,894,774
Value of Benefits 30,090 45,134
Total(2)
19,599,864 19,952,408
Jonathan Campagna Cash Payment 262,500 525,000
Vesting of Equity Awards - 9,450,698
Value of Benefits 14,998 29,996
Total 277,498 10,005,694
Michael Moses Cash Payment 262,500 525,000
Vesting of Equity Awards - 14,176,053
Value of Benefits 15,045 30,090
Total 277,545 14,731,143
Michelle Kley Cash Payment 262,500 525,000
Vesting of Equity Awards - 1,476,000
Value of Benefits 4,956 9,911
Total 267,456 2,010,911
(1) Mr. Colgazier's total does not include the value of the commercial flight bonus and the spaceflight.
(2) Mr. Whitesides' total does not include the milestone payment or the value of the spaceflight.
CEO PAY RATIO
As required by Section 953(b) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, and Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K, we are providing the following information regarding the relationship of the annual total compensation of our median compensated employee to the annual total compensation of Michael Colglazier, our CEO. We consider the pay ratio specified below to be a reasonable estimate, calculated in a manner that is intended to be consistent with the requirements of Item 402(u) of Regulation S-K.
For 2020, our last completed fiscal year:
• the annual total compensation of the employee who represents our median compensated employee (other than our CEO) was $235,574; and
• the annual total compensation of our CEO, as reported in the Summary Compensation Table included above, was $21,253,545.
Based on this information, for 2020, our CEO’s annual total compensation was approximately 90 times that of the median of the annual total compensation of all of our employees (other than the CEO).
COMPENSATION COMMITTEE INTERLOCKS AND INSIDER PARTICIPATION
During 2020, the members of our compensation committee were Dr. Austin and Messrs. Bain and Mattson, none of whom was during fiscal year 2020 an officer or employee of the Company or was formerly an officer of the Company. Related person
transactions pursuant to Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K involving those who served on the compensation committee during 2020 are described in “Certain Transactions with Related Persons.”
During 2020, none of our executive officers served as a member of the board of directors or compensation committee (or other committee performing equivalent functions) of any entity that had one or more executive officers serving on our Board of Directors or compensation committee.

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ITEM 12. SECURITY OWNERSHIP OF CERTAIN BENEFICIAL OWNERS
Item 12. Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters
Equity Compensation Plan Information
The following table provides information on our equity compensation plans as of December 31, 2020. The only plan pursuant to which the Company may currently make additional equity grants is the 2019 Plan.
Plan category Numbers of securities to be issued upon exercise of outstanding options, warrants and rights Weighted average exercise price of outstanding options, warrants and rights Number of securities remaining available for future issuance under equity compensation plans (excluding securities reflected in column (a))
(a) (b) (c)
Equity compensation plans approved by stockholders(1) 11,556,829(2)
$ 13.59(3)
11,307,108
Equity compensation plans not approved by stockholders - - -
Total 11,556,829 $ 13.59 11,307,108
(1) Consists of the 2019 Plan.
(2) Amount includes 6,796,045 stock options and 4,760,784 RSUs.
(3) As of December 31, 2020, the weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options under the 2019 Plan was $13.61. The calculation of the weighted average exercise price does not include outstanding equity awards that are received or exercised for no consideration.
Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners And Management
The following table sets forth information with respect to the beneficial ownership of our common stock as of February 22, 2021 for
•each person who is known to be the beneficial owner of more than 5% of shares of our outstanding common stock;
•each of our current named executive officers and directors; and
•all of our current executive officers and directors as a group.
Beneficial ownership is determined according to the rules of the SEC, which generally provide that a person has beneficial ownership of a security if he, she or it possesses sole or shared voting or investment power over that security, including options and warrants that are currently exercisable or exercisable within 60 days. The beneficial ownership of our voting securities is based on 236,944,263 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding as of February 22, 2021. Each share of our common stock is entitled to one vote on any matter presented to stockholders. Unless otherwise indicated, the Company believes that all persons named in the table below have sole voting and investment power with respect to the voting securities beneficially owned by them.
Shares Beneficially
Owned
Shares % of
Ownership
Name of Beneficial Owner(1)
Holders of More Than 5%
Virgin Investments Limited(2)
62,403,260 26.3%
SCH Sponsor Corp(3)
23,750,000 9.7%
Directors and Named Executive Officers
Adam Bain(4)
1,200,000 *
Chamath Palihapitiya(3)(5)
37,950,000 15.5%
Craig Kreeger(6)
18,482 *
Enrico Palermo(13)
410,861 *
Evan Lovell - *
George Mattson(7)
8,482 *
George Whitesides(14)
417,058
W. Gilbert West - *
Jonathan Campagna(8)
76,330 *
Michael Colglazier(9)
92,647 *
Michael Moses(10)
211,621 *
Michelle Kley(11)
103,810 *
Wanda Austin(12)
8,482 *
All Directors and Executive Officers as a Group
Group (11 individuals)(15)
39,669,854 16.2%
* Less than one percent
(1) Unless otherwise noted, the business address of each of those listed in the table above is 166 North Roadrunner Parkway, Suite 1C, Las Cruces, NM 88011
(2) VIL is a company limited by shares under the laws of the British Virgin Islands. VIL is wholly owned by Virgin Group Investments LLC, whose sole managing member is Corvina Holdings Limited, which is wholly owned by Virgin Group Holdings. Virgin Group Holdings is owned by Sir Richard Branson, and he has the ability to appoint and remove the management of Virgin Group Holdings and, as such, may indirectly control the decisions of Virgin Group Holdings regarding the voting and disposition of securities held by Virgin Group Holdings. Therefore, Sir Richard Branson may be deemed to have indirect beneficial ownership of the shares held by Virgin Group Holdings. The address of VIL, Virgin Group Holdings Limited, and Corvina Holdings Limited is Craigmuir Chambers, Road Town, Tortola, VG1110, British Virgin Islands. The address of Sir Richard Branson is Branson Villa (Necker Beach Estate), Necker Island, VG 1150, British Virgin Islands
(3) Includes 15,750,000 shares of our common stock directly held by the Sponsor and 8,000,000 shares issuable upon the exercise of warrants issued to the Sponsor in a private placement concurrent with our initial public offering. Chamath Palihapitiya may be deemed to beneficially own securities held by the Sponsor by virtue of his shared control over the Sponsor. The address of the Sponsor is 317 University Avenue, Suite 200, Palo Alto, California 94301.
(4) Mr. Bain has pledged, hypothecated or granted security interests in all of the shares of our common stock held by him pursuant to a margin loan agreement with customary default provisions. In the event of a default under the margin loan agreement, the secured parties may foreclose upon any and all shares of common stock pledged to them and may seek recourse against the borrower.
(5) Mr. Palihapitiya has pledged, hypothecated or granted security interests in all of the shares of our common stock held by him (but not those shares held by the Sponsor) pursuant to a margin loan agreement with customary default provisions. In the event of a default under the margin loan agreement, the secured parties may foreclose upon any and all shares of common stock pledged to them and may seek recourse against the borrower.
(6) Includes 18,482 shares of common stock held directly by Craig Kreeger.
(7) Includes 8,482 shares of common stock held directly by George Mattson.
(8) Includes up to 18,354 shares of common stock held directly by Jonathan Campagna. Includes up to 54,110 shares of common stock that can be acquired upon the exercise of options that will be vested within 60 days of February 22, 2021. Includes 3,866 shares of common stock that will be issued upon vesting of RSUs within 60 days of February 22, 2021.
(9) Includes 17,647 shares of common stock held directly by Michael Colglazier. Includes up to 75,000 shares of common stock that can be acquired upon the exercise of options that will be vested within 60 days of February 22, 2021.
(10) Includes up to 43,492 shares of common stock held directly by Michael Moses. Includes up to 162,330 shares of common stock that can be acquired upon the exercise of options that will be vested within 60 days of February 22, 2021. Includes 5,799 shares of common stock that will be issued upon vesting of RSUs within 60 days of February 22, 2021.
(11) Includes 3,810 shares of common stock held directly by Michelle Kley. Includes up to 100,000 shares of common stock that can be acquired upon the exercise of options that will be vested within 60 days of February 22, 2021.
(12) Includes 8,482 shares of common stock held directly by Wanda Austin.
(13) Includes 410,861 shares of common stock held directly by Enrico Palermo.
(14) Includes 301,994 shares of common stock held directly by George Whitesides. Includes up to 66,841 shares of common stock that can be acquired upon the exercise of options that will be vested within 60 days of February 22, 2021. Includes 48,223 shares of common stock that will be issued upon vesting of RSUs within 60 days of February 22, 2021
(15) Includes 8,391,440 options vested as of, or vesting within, 60 days of February 22, 2021 and 9,665 RSUs vesting
within 60 days of February 22, 2021.

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ITEM 13. CERTAIN RELATIONSHIPS AND RELATED TRANSACTIONS
Item 13. Certain Relationships and Related Transaction, and Director Independence
Policies and Procedures for Related Party Transactions
Our Board of Directors has adopted a written related person transaction policy setting forth the policies and procedures for the review and approval or ratification of related person transactions. This policy covers, with certain exceptions set forth in Item 404(a) of Regulation S-K under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), any transaction, arrangement or relationship, or any series of similar transactions, arrangements or relationships, in which we were or are to be a participant, where the amount involved exceeds $120,000 in any fiscal year and a related person had, has or will have a direct or indirect material interest. In reviewing and approving any such transactions, our audit committee is tasked to consider all relevant facts and circumstances, including, but not limited to, whether the transaction is on terms comparable to those that could be obtained on terms no less favorable than in arm’s length dealings with an unrelated third party and the extent of the related person’s interest in the transaction.
Stockholders’ Agreement
In connection with the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we entered into a stockholders’ agreement (the “Stockholders’ Agreement”) with Vieco USA, Inc. (“Vieco US”), the Sponsor and Mr. Palihapitiya. In March 2020, Vieco US distributed its shares of our common stock to Vieco 10 and, in connection with such distribution, Vieco 10 executed a joinder to the Stockholders’ Agreement and to the Registration Rights Agreement described below. On July 30, 2020, Vieco 10 subsequently distributed its shares of our common stock to VIL and Aabar and, in connection with such distribution, VIL and Aabar executed a joinder to the Stockholders’ Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement.
Board Composition
Under the Stockholders’ Agreement, VIL has the right to designate three directors (the “VG designees”) for as long as VIL and Aabar beneficially own 57,395,219 or more shares of our common stock, which represents 50% of the number of shares beneficially owned by Vieco US immediately following the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and related transactions, provided that, when such beneficial ownership falls below (x) 57,395,219 shares, VIL will have the right to designate only two directors, (y) 28,697,610 shares, VIL will have the right to designate only one director and (z) 11,479,044 shares, VIL will not have the right to designate any directors. For purposes of determining the number of shares beneficially owned by VIL and the extent of VIL’s nomination and consent rights under the Stockholders’ Agreement, the shares distributed to Aabar are deemed to be held by VIL until such time as Aabar transfers or sells such shares, subject to certain exceptions, as contemplated by the Stockholders’ Agreement. Each of the Sponsor and Mr. Palihapitiya have agreed to vote, or cause to vote, all of their outstanding shares of our common stock at any annual or special meeting of stockholders in which directors are elected, so as to cause the election of the VG designees.
Additionally, pursuant to the Stockholders’ Agreement, Mr. Palihapitiya also has the right to designate two directors (the “CP designees”), one of which must qualify as an “independent director” under stock exchange regulations applicable to us, for as long as Mr. Palihapitiya and the Sponsor collectively beneficially own at least 21,375,000 shares of our common stock, which represents 90% of the number of shares beneficially owned by them as of immediately following the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, but excluding the 10,000,000 shares purchased by Mr. Palihapitiya from Vieco US, provided that when such beneficial ownership falls below (x) 21,375,000 shares, Mr. Palihapitiya will have the right to designate only one director, who will not be required to qualify as an “independent director” and (y) 11,875,000 shares, Mr. Palihapitiya will not have the right to designate any directors. VIL has agreed to vote, or cause to vote, all of its outstanding shares of our common stock at any annual or special meeting of stockholders in which directors are elected, so as to cause the election of the CP designees. The initial chairperson of the Board of Directors is Mr. Palihapitiya until such time as VIL identifies a permanent chairperson who qualifies as an independent director and is reasonably acceptable to Mr. Palihapitiya.
Under the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement, two directors (the “Other designees”), each of whom must qualify as an “independent director” under stock exchange regulations applicable to us and one of whom must qualify as an “audit committee financial expert” as defined under the rules of the SEC, were appointed in accordance with the Stockholders’ Agreement and, thereafter, will be as determined by the Board of Directors. In addition, under the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement, the individual serving as our Chief Executive Officer (the “CEO designee”), was appointed in accordance with the Stockholders’ Agreement to our Board of Directors and will, going forward, be determined by what individual holds the title of our Chief Executive Officer.
Resignation; Removal; Vacancies
Upon any decrease in the number of directors that VIL or Mr. Palihapitiya is entitled to designate for nomination to our Board of Directors, VIL or Mr. Palihapitiya, as applicable, shall take all necessary action to cause the appropriate number of designees to offer to tender their resignation, effective as of the next annual meeting of our stockholders. If as a result of changes in ownership by VIL or by the Sponsor and Mr. Palihapitiya of our common stock such that there are any seats on our Board of Directors for which none of VIL or Mr. Palihapitiya have the right to designate a director, the selection of such director shall be conducted in accordance with applicable law and our certificate of incorporation and bylaws.
VIL and Mr. Palihapitiya will have the exclusive right to remove one or more of the VG designees or CP designees, respectively, from the Board of Directors and VIL and Mr. Palihapitiya will have the exclusive right to designate directors for election to the Board of Directors to fill vacancies created by reason of death, removal or resignation of VG designees or CP designees, respectively (in each case, so long as the applicable party retains its right to designate a director to such seat on our Board of Directors by virtue of its ownership levels of our common stock). Until the earliest of (i) the date Mr. Palihapitiya is no longer entitled to designate two CP designees to our Board of Directors or, if earlier, the date VIL is no longer entitled to designate two or more VG designees to our Board of Directors, in each case, pursuant to the Stockholders’ Agreement (the “Sunset Date”) and (ii) the expiration of the lock-up period under the Registration Rights Agreement (as defined below), VIL will take no action to cause the removal of any of the other designees appointed under the Stockholders’ Agreement. Until the Sunset Date, VIL must consult and discuss with the other members of our Board of Directors before undertaking any action to cause the removal of one or more of the Other designees.
Chairperson of the Board of Directors
For so long as Mr. Palihapitiya is entitled to designate at least one director for election to our Board of Directors in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Stockholders’ Agreement, we and the other parties to the Stockholders’ Agreement will take all necessary action to cause Mr. Palihapitiya to be the chair of our Board of Directors. However, at such time as VIL identifies and nominates a permanent chairperson who is reasonably acceptable to Mr. Palihapitiya and whom the Board of Directors determines qualifies as an “independent director” under applicable stock exchange regulations, Mr.
Palihapitiya will resign from the role of chair and the new director will replace a resigning other designee on our Board of Directors and assume the role of chair.
Voting; Necessary Actions
In addition, pursuant to the Stockholders’ Agreement, we and the other parties thereto have agreed not to take, directly or indirectly, any actions (including removing directors in a manner inconsistent with the Stockholders’ Agreement) that would frustrate, obstruct or otherwise affect the provisions of the Stockholders’ Agreement and the intention of the parties thereto with respect to the composition of our Board of Directors as provided in the agreement. Each of the stockholders party to the agreement, to the extent not prohibited by our certificate of incorporation, will vote all of their respective shares of our common stock in such manner as may be necessary to elect and/or maintain in office as members of our Board of Directors those individuals designated in accordance with the Stockholders’ Agreement and to otherwise effect the intent of the provisions of the Stockholders’ Agreement.
VIL Approval Rights; Limitations
Pursuant to the Stockholders’ Agreement, among other things, VIL also has certain approval rights with respect to significant corporate transactions and other actions involving us as set forth below.
For so long as VIL is entitled to designate one director to our Board of Directors under the Stockholders’ Agreement, in addition to any vote or consent of our stockholders or Board of Directors as required by law, we must obtain VIL’s prior written consent to engage in:
• any business combination or similar transaction;
• amendments to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, any similar documents of any of our subsidiaries, the Stockholders' Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement;
• a liquidation or related transaction; or
• an issuance of capital stock in excess of 5% of our then issued and outstanding shares.
For so long as VIL is entitled to designate two directors to our Board of Directors under the Stockholders’ Agreement, in addition to any vote or consent of our stockholders or Board of Directors as required by law, we must obtain VIL’s prior written consent to engage in:
•
a business combination or similar transaction having a fair market value of $10.0 million or more;
• a non-ordinary course sale of assets or equity interest having a fair market value of $10.0 million or more;
• an acquisition of any business or assets having a fair market value of $10.0 million or more;
• an acquisition of equity interests having a fair market value of $10.0 million or more;
• an engagement of any professional advisers, including, without limitation, investment bankers and financial advisers;
• the approval of a non-ordinary course investment having a fair market value of $10.0 million or more;
• increasing or decreasing the size of our Board of Directors;
• an issuance or sale of any of our capital stock, other than an issuance of shares of capital stock upon the exercise of options to purchase shares of our capital stock;
• making any dividends or distributions to the stockholders other than redemptions and those made in connection with the cessation of services of employees;
• incurring indebtedness outside of the ordinary course in an amount greater than $25.0 million in a single transaction or $100.0 million in aggregate consolidated indebtedness;
• amendments to our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, any similar documents of any of our subsidiaries, the Stockholders’ Agreement and the Registration Rights Agreement
• a liquidation or similar transaction;
• transactions with any interested stockholder pursuant to Item 404 of Regulation S-K;
• engaging any professional advisors for any of the matters listed above; or
• the authorization or approval, or entrance into any agreement to engage in any of the matters listed above.
However, the Stockholders’ Agreement also contemplates that: (i) no transaction involving consideration of $120,000 or more, between VIL or any affiliate of VIL, on the one hand, and us on the other, may be approved without the affirmative vote of at least a majority of our directors that were not designated by VIL under the terms of the Stockholders’ Agreement (or otherwise) and (ii) VIL and the directors it has designated to our Board of Directors, as applicable, will be required to first consult and discuss with our Board of Directors before (x) adopting, amending or repealing, in whole or in part, our certificate of incorporation or bylaws or (y) taking any action by written consent as our stockholder, in each case, in addition to any vote or consent required under our certificate of incorporation or bylaws, and otherwise in accordance with the other terms and subject to the other conditions contemplated by the Stockholders’ Agreement.
Termination
The provisions of the Stockholders’ Agreement relating to the stockholders’ agreement to vote, VIL’s approval rights and our covenants will terminate automatically on the first date on which no voting party has the right to designate a director to our Board of Directors under the Stockholders’ Agreement; provided, that the provisions of the Stockholders’ Agreement regarding indemnification of our directors and maintenance of director and officer liability insurance by us will survive such termination. The remaining provisions of the Stockholders’ Agreement will terminate automatically as to each voting party when such party ceases to beneficially own any of our securities that may be voted in the election of our directors registered in the name of, or beneficially owned (as such term is defined in Rule 13d-3 under the Exchange Act, including by the exercise or conversion of any security exercisable or convertible for shares of our common stock, but excluding shares of stock underlying unexercised options or warrants) by such party.
Transfer Restrictions and Registration Rights
At the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we entered into an Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement (the “Registration Rights Agreement”) with Vieco US, the Sponsor and Mr. Palihapitiya, pursuant to which we have agreed to register for resale, pursuant to Rule 415 under the Securities Act, certain shares of our common stock and other equity securities (the “Registrable Securities”) that are held by the parties thereto from time to time. In March 2020, Vieco US distributed its shares of our common stock to Vieco 10 and, in connection with such distribution, Vieco 10 executed a joinder to the Registration Rights Agreement. In July 2020, Vieco 10 subsequently distributed its shares of our common stock to VIL and Aabar and, in connection with such distribution, VIL and Aabar executed a joinder to the Registration Rights Agreement.
In accordance with Registration Rights Agreement, we have filed resale registration statements for the benefit of the holders of Registrable Securities, which have been declared effective by the SEC. Pursuant to the Registration Rights Agreement, we are required to file with the SEC such amendments and supplements as may be necessary to keep a resale registration statement continuously effective, available for use and in compliance with the provisions of the Securities Act until such time as there are no longer any Registrable Securities held by the parties to the Registration Rights Agreement or their permitted transferees.
Additionally, the Registration Rights Agreement contains certain restrictions on transfer with respect to the shares of our common stock held by the Sponsor immediately following the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and the shares of our common stock received by Vieco US in connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination and now held by VIL and Aabar, including a two-year lock-up of such shares held by the Sponsor and 50% of the shares received by Vieco US, in each case, subject to limited exceptions as contemplated thereby.
VG Companies’ Historical Relationship with Vieco 10
In connection with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we entered into new or amended agreements in order to provide a framework for its relationship with VEL, Vieco 10 and their respective affiliates (other than the VG Companies), including the Amended TMLA and the Transition Services Agreements as described below.
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 Enterprises Limited (“VEL”) 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 VEL with the right to appoint one director to our Board of Directors, provided the designee is qualified to serve on the Board of Directors under all applicable corporate governance policies and applicable regulatory and listing requirements.
Unless terminated earlier, the Amended TMLA has 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 VEL upon the occurrence of a number of 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 VEL;
• we fail to make use of the “Virgin Galactic” brand to conduct our business;
• we challenge the validity or entitlement of VEL 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 VEL, 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 VEL 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 customers, a mid-five figure amount in dollars and (ii) from our first spaceflight for paying customers, 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. In the year ended December 31, 2020, we paid Virgin a total of $0.2 million under the Amended TMLA and its predecessor agreement. For the years ended December 31, 2019 and 2018, the VG Companies made certain license and royalty payments of $0.1 million and $0.1 million, respectively, under the prior license agreement.
The Amended TMLA also contains, among other things, customary mutual indemnification provisions, representations and warranties, information rights of VEL 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, VEL is generally responsible for the 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 VEL and our use of such trademarks is subject to the terms of the Amended TMLA, including our adherence to VEL’s quality control guidelines and granting VEL customary audit rights over our use of the licensed intellectual property.
Transition Services Agreements
At the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we entered into the U.S. Transition Services Agreement, pursuant to which we and Galactic Ventures LLC and Virgin Orbit, LLC, which had previously part of the same consolidated corporate group as the VG Companies, established a service schedule to control the provision of services among the parties. Virgin Orbit, LLC provides propulsion engineering, tank design support services, tank manufacturing services, office space access and usage services to us, as well as business development and regulatory affairs services. We provide office space, logistics, welding services, IT services, pilot utilization services, finance and accounting services, and insurance advisory services to Virgin Orbit, LLC. Galactic Ventures LLC will continue to provide IT services us for so long as such IT services have not been fully transitioned or the applicable contracts have not been assigned. We received $0.5 million and $0.2 million under the U.S. Transition Services Agreement in the years ended December 31, 2020 and 2019, respectively.
At the closing of the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, we also entered into the U.K. Transition Services Agreement, pursuant to which certain of our employees based in the United Kingdom continue to receive access to certain third party and Virgin Group employee benefits services.
Compensation of Chief Astronaut Instructor
Our chief astronaut instructor, Natalie Beth Moses, is an immediate family member of Michael Moses, one of our executive officers. Mrs. Moses received approximately $328,119 in total compensation in 2020.

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ITEM 14. PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTING FEES AND SERVICES
Item 14. Principal Accountant Fees and Services
The table below sets forth the aggregate fees billed by KPMG in 2019 and 2020.
2020 2019(3,4)
Audit Fees1
$ 1,963,668 $ 1,459,734
Audit Related Fees - -
Tax Fees - -
All Other Fees2
- 315,114
Total $ 1,963,668 $ 1,774,848
(1) Audit fees include fees for services performed to comply with the standards established by the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, including the audit of our consolidated financial statements. This category also includes fees for audits provided in connection with statutory filings or services that generally only the principal independent auditor reasonably can provide, such as consent and assistance with and review of our SEC filings
(2) All Other Fees consisted of fees billed for services involving due diligence performed in connection with directors' and officers' insurance under Social Capital’s engagement entered into prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination.
(3) Represent fees billed for services for the period from October 26, 2019 through December 31, 2019 following the Virgin Galactic Business Combination. Audit Fees include the 2019 audit of our consolidated financial statements for approximately $630,000, the statutory audit performed for Virgin Galactic Limited for approximately $24,000, fees for SEC filings related to the registration of shares issuable under the Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. 2019 Incentive Award Plan and warrants and fees for SEC filings associated with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination for approximately $74,000.
(4) Represent fees billed for services for the period from January 1, 2019 through October 25, 2019 prior to the Virgin Galactic Business Combination. Audit Fees include the fiscal year 2017 and 2018 carve-out audits for approximately $383,000 and fees related to SEC filings associated with the Virgin Galactic Business Combination for approximately $349,000.
Pre-Approval Policies and Procedures
The formal written charter for our audit committee requires that the audit committee pre-approve all audit services to be provided to us, whether provided by our principal auditor or other firms, and all other services (review, attest and non-audit) to be provided to us by our independent registered public accounting firm, other than de minimis non-audit services approved in accordance with applicable SEC rules.
The audit committee has adopted a pre-approval policy that sets forth the procedures and conditions pursuant to which audit and non-audit services proposed to be performed by our independent registered public accounting firm may be pre-approved. This pre-approval policy generally provides that the audit committee will not engage an independent registered public accounting firm to render any audit, audit-related, tax or permissible non-audit service unless the service is either (i) explicitly approved by the audit committee or (ii) entered into pursuant to the pre-approval policies and procedures described in the pre-approval policy. Unless a type of service to be provided by our independent registered public accounting firm has received this latter general pre-approval under the pre-approval policy, it requires specific pre-approval by the audit committee.
On an annual basis, the audit committee reviews and generally pre-approves the services (and related fee levels or budgeted amounts) that may be provided by the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm without first obtaining specific pre-approval from the audit committee. The audit committee may revise the list of general pre-approved services from time to time, based on subsequent determinations. Any member of the audit committee to whom the committee delegates authority to make pre-approval decisions must report any such pre-approval decisions to the audit committee at its next scheduled meeting. If circumstances arise where it becomes necessary to engage the independent registered public accounting firm for additional services not contemplated in the original pre-approval categories or above the pre-approved amounts, the audit committee requires pre-approval for such additional services or such additional amounts.
Following the Virgin Galactic Business Combination, all of the services listed in the table above were preapproved by our audit committee.
Part IV

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ITEM 15. EXHIBITS, FINANCIAL STATEMENT SCHEDULES
Item 15. Exhibits, Financial Statement Schedules
The following documents are filed as part of this report:
(1) Financial Statements. Reference is made to the Index to Consolidated Financial Statements beginning on Page
hereof.
(2) Financial Statement Schedules. None.
(3) Exhibits. The following exhibits are filed, furnished or incorporated by reference as part of this Annual Report on
Form 10-K.
Incorporated by Reference
Exhibit No. Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Filing Date Filed/Furnished Herewith
2.1(3)
Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated July 9, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Vieco 10 Limited, Foundation Sub 1, Inc., Foundation Sub 2, Inc., Foundation Sub LLC, TSC Vehicle Holdings, Inc., Virgin Galactic Vehicle Holdings, Inc. and Virgin Galactic Holdings, LLC
8-K/A 001-38202 2.1 07/11/2019
2.1(a)(3)
Amendment No. 1 to Agreement and Plan of Merger, dated October 2, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Vieco 10 Limited, Foundation Sub 1, Inc., Foundation Sub 2, Inc., Foundation Sub LLC, TSC Vehicle Holdings, Inc., Virgin Galactic Vehicle Holdings, Inc., Virgin Galactic Holdings, LLC and Vieco USA, Inc.
S-4 333-233098 2.1(a) 10/03/2019
3.1 Certificate of Incorporation of the Registrant
8-K 001-38202 3.1 10/29/2019
3.2 By-Laws of the Registrant
8-K 001-38202 3.2 10/29/2019
4.1 Specimen Common Stock Certificate of the Registrant
8-K 001-38202 4.2 10/29/2019
4.2 Warrant Agreement, dated September 13, 2017, by and between the Registrant and Continental Stock Transfer & Trust Company, as warrant agent
8-K 001-38202 4.4 09/18/2017
4.3 Description of the Registrant’s Securities Registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act
10-K 001-38202 4.4 02/28/2020
10.1 Form of Indemnification Agreement
S-4/A 333-233098 10.46 10/03/2019
10.2(1)
2019 Incentive Award Plan
8-K 001-38202 10.2 10/29/2019
10.2(a)(1)
Form of Director Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement
S-4 333-233098 10.26 08/07/2019
10.2(b)(1)
Form of Restricted Stock Unit Agreement under the 2019 Incentive Award Plan
8-K 001-38202 10.2(b) 10/29/2019
10.2(c)(1)
Form of Stock Option Agreement under the 2019 Incentive Award Plan
8-K 001-38202 10.2(c) 10/29/2019
10.3(1)
Amended Non-Employee Director Compensation Program
*
10.4(1)(4)
Amended and Restated Employment Agreement, dated July 13, 2020, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Galactic, LLC and George Whitesides
8-K 001-38202 10.2 7/15/2020
10.5 Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement with George Whitesides
8-K 001-38202 10.3 7/15/2020
10.6(1)(4)
Employment Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Galactic, LLC and Michael Moses
8-K 001-38202 10.5 10/29/2019
10.7(1)(4)
Amended and Restated Employment Agreement, dated January 13, 2020, by and among the Registrant, TSC, LLC, Virgin Galactic Holdings, LLC and Enrico Palermo
S-1/A 333-234770 10.6 2/14/2020
Incorporated by Reference
Exhibit No. Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Filing Date Filed/Furnished Herewith
10.8(1)(4)
Employment Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Galactic Holdings, LLC and Jonathan Campagna
8-K 001-38202 10.7 10/29/2019
10.9(1)(4)
Employment Agreement, dated July 10, 2020, by and between the Registrant, Virgin Galactic, LLC and Michael Colglazier, Form of Restricted Stock Unit Award Agreement with Michael Colglazier and Form of Stock Option Award Agreement with Michael Colglazier
8-K 001-38202 10.1 07/15/2020
10.10(1)(4)
Employment Agreement, dated December 2, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Galactic Holdings, LLC and Michelle Kley
*
10.11(1)(4)
Employment Agreement, dated February 22, 2021, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Galactic, LLC and Doug Ahrens
*
10.12 Purchase Agreement, dated July 9, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Chamath Palihapitiya and Vieco 10 Limited
8-K/A 001-38202 10.1 07/11/2019
10.12(a) Assignment, Consent and Waiver Agreement, dated October 2, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Chamath Palihapitiya, Vieco 10 Limited and Vieco USA, Inc.
S-4 333-233098 10.19(a) 10/03/2019
10.13 Stockholders’ Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and among the Registrant, SCH Sponsor Corp., Chamath Palihapitiya and Vieco USA, Inc.
8-K 001-38202 10.9 10/29/2019
10.13(a) Joinder to Stockholders’ Agreement, dated March 16, 2020, by and between Vieco 10 Limited and the Registrant
S-1 333-237961 10.9(a) 05/01/2020
10.13(b) Joinder to Stockholders’ Agreement, dated July 30, 2020, by and among Virgin Investments Limited, Aabar Space, Inc. and the Registrant
8-K 001-38202 99.1 07/31/2020
10.14 Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Vieco USA, Inc., SCH Sponsor Corp. and Chamath Palihapitiya.
8-K 001-38202 10.10 10/29/2019
10.14(a) Joinder to Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement, dated March 16, 2020, by and between Vieco 10 Limited and the Registrant
S-1 333-237961 10.10(a) 05/01/2020
10.14(b) Joinder to Amended and Restated Registration Rights Agreement, dated July 30, 2020, by and among Virgin Investments Limited, Aabar Space, Inc. and the Registrant
8-K 001-38202 99.2 07/31/2020
10.15(2)
Deed of Novation, Amendment and Restatement, dated July 9, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Enterprises Limited and Virgin Galactic, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.20 08/07/2019
10.15(a)(2)
Deed of Amendment, dated October 2, 2019, by and among the Registrant, Virgin Enterprises Limited and Virgin Galactic, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.21(a) 10/03/2019
10.16(2)
U.S. Transition Services Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and among TSC LLC, Virgin Galactic, LLC, Galactic Ventures LLC and Virgin Orbit. LLC
8-K 001-38202 10.12 10/29/2019
10.17(2)
U.K. Transition Services Agreement, dated October 25, 2019, by and between Virgin Galactic Limited and Virgin Management Limited
8-K 001-38202 10.13 10/29/2019
10.18(2)
Spacecraft Technology License Agreement, dated September 24, 2004, by and between Mojave Aerospace Ventures, LLC and Virgin Galactic, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.27 08/07/2019
10.18(a)(2)
Amendment No. 1 to the Spacecraft Technology License Agreement, dated July 27, 2009, by and between Mojave Aerospace Ventures, LLC and Virgin Galactic, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.28 08/07/2019
Incorporated by Reference
Exhibit No. Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Filing Date Filed/Furnished Herewith
10.19 Facilities Lease, dated December 31, 2008, by and between Virgin Galactic, LLC and New Mexico Spaceport Authority
S-4 333-233098 10.29 08/07/2019
10.19(a) First Amendment to the Facilities Lease, dated 2009, by and between Virgin Galactic, LLC and New Mexico Spaceport Authority
S-4 333-233098 10.30 08/07/2019
10.20 Building 79A Lease Agreement, dated January 1, 2018, by and between Mojave Air and Space Port and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.32 09/13/2019
10.21 Land Lease Agreement, dated October 1, 2010, by and between East Kern Airport District and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.33 09/13/2019
10.21(a) Amendment No. 1 to the Land Lease Agreement, dated October 1, 2013, by and between Mojave Air and Space Sport and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.34 09/13/2019
10.22 Site 14 Lease Agreement, dated February 18, 2015, by and between Mojave Air and Space Sport and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.35 09/13/2019
10.23 First Amendment to the Site 14 Lease Agreement, dated July 1, 2017, by and between Mojave Air and Space Sport and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.36 09/13/2019
10.24 Building 79B Lease Agreement, dated March 1, 2013, by and between Mojave Air and Space Port and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.37 10/03/2019
10.24(a) First Amendment to Building 79B Lease, dated June 2, 2014, by and between Mojave Air and Space Port and TSC, LLC
S-4 333-233098 10.38 10/03/2019
21.1 List of Subsidiaries
*
23.1 Consent of KPMG LLP
*
24.1 Powers of Attorney (incorporated by reference to the signature page hereto) *
31.1 Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
10-K 001-38202 31.1 *
31.2 Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to Securities Exchange Act Rules 13a-14(a) and 15(d)-14(a), as adopted Pursuant to Section 302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
10-K 001-38202 31.2 *
32.1 Certification of Principal Executive Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
10-K 001-38202 32.1 **
32.2 Certification of Principal Financial Officer Pursuant to 18 U.S.C. Section 1350, as adopted Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
10-K 001-38202 32.2 **
101.INS Inline XBRL Instance Document - the instance document does not appear in the Interactive Data File because its XBRL tags are embedded within the Inline XBRL document *
101.SCH Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document *
101.CAL Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document *
101.DEF Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document *
101.LAB Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document *
101.PRE Inline XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document *
Incorporated by Reference
Exhibit No. Exhibit Description Form File No. Exhibit Filing Date Filed/Furnished Herewith
104 Cover Page Interactive Data File (formatted as Inline XBRL and contained in Exhibit 101) *
* Filed herewith.
** Furnished herewith.
(1) Indicates management contract or compensatory plan.
(2) Certain portions of this exhibit (indicated by “[***]”) have been omitted pursuant to Regulation S-K, Item (601)(b)(10).
(3) Schedules and exhibits have been omitted pursuant to Item 601(b)(2) of Regulation S-K. The Registrant agrees to furnish
supplementally a copy of any omitted schedule or exhibit to the SEC upon request.
(4) An attachment to this exhibit has been omitted pursuant to Item 601(a)(5) of Regulation S-K because the information
contained therein is not material and is not otherwise publicly disclosed. The Registrant will furnish supplementally a copy
of the attachment to the SEC or its staff upon request.