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Virgin Galactic has officially unveiled the first spaceplane in its next-generation “Delta” line and announced the results of the global vote to choose its name.
The Apeiron spacecraft will be the first Delta-class vehicle, Galactic Virgo revealed on Wednesday (October 28). Apeiron (pronounced “A’-per-on,” according to the announcement) takes its name from the ancient Greek word meaning “limitless” and was selected in a public poll that attracted the votes of thousands of people in 83 countries and six continents.
THE reveal arrives on the same day the spaceplane is scheduled to take off from its manufacturing facility in Mesa, Arizona, to Spaceport America in New Mexico, where the vehicle will undergo final preparations before beginning flight testing.
Apeiron was one of four finalist names selected by Virgin Galactic from a list of 276 suggestions submitted by employees. After public opinion, Apeiron won ahead of Horizon, Explorer and Ascend.
“Apeiron, the Boundless, reflects the ambition of human spaceflight and the possibilities it opens up for humanity,” Michael Golglazier, CEO of Virgin Galactic, said in a company statement. “The extraordinary response to the public vote made the choice of this name even more meaningful.”
The shiny new spaceplane will be attached to Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve carrier aircraft for its journey to Spaceport America, where engineers will finish work on its avionics software ahead of Apeiron’s first flight tests and possible operational missions.
The new Delta-class vehicle replaces Virgin’s previous space plane model, VSS unitwho stole seven suborbital missions over its operational lifespan between the summers of 2023 and 2024. The company suspended VSS Unity flights to focus its efforts on the development of Apeiron, and now hopes to resume carrying customers in mid-2027.
Once they are in regular service, Virgin plans to fly each of its Delta-class vehicles up to eight times per month. A second Delta-class spaceplane is already under construction and is expected to join Apeiron at Spaceport America around the same time Virgin restarts passenger transportation, of which approximately 675 are still waiting online with tickets for a seat on one of the company’s suborbital escapades, according to the Second Quarter 2026 SEC Filing.
Today, more than 100 of these future space travelers are beginning their initial preparations for flight, and more ticket holders are expected to follow once Virgin puts the second Delta-class vehicle into service. When the company started selling seats aboard his spaceplane in 2014, when VSS Unity was still under construction, tickets cost around $200,000. Today, that price has climbed to $850,000 per seat, according to a report from Latte.
Like its predecessor, the Apeiron and future Delta-class vehicles are designed for short suborbital spaceflights and are not capable of reaching an orbit around Earth. They fly over the internationally recognized border of spacethe height of 100 kilometers (62 miles) Karman Lineand offer those on board several minutes of weightlessness and stunning views of the planet below.
Virgin Galactic plans to share more details about its upcoming flight tests during its November earnings conference call.
Virgin is one of two U.S. companies that have flown paying customers to suborbital space and back. The other, Blue origin, suspended flights earlier this year focus on helping NASA astronauts land on the moon.
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