Virgin Galactic files for $500 million stock sale after spaceflight success

Virgin Galactic on Monday announced plans to sell up to $500 million worth of shares. The announcement came in after the company successfully finished its first fully crewed test flight into space with billionaire founder Richard Branson on board.

Soon after the announcement, Virgin Galactic's shares rose by 8 per cent premarket, but soon fell 10 per cent in early trading.

Branson's trip upstaged rival space tourism venture Blue Origin and its founder Jeff Bezos. The ongoing tussle has been called the "billionaire space race". Bezos is slated to fly to space on July 20 along with his brother Mark. Bezos founded the retail giant Amazon.com Inc.

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According to the Swiss investment bank UBS, the potential value of space tourism could reach $3 annual value by 2030.

Virgin Galactic is expected to begin commercial space operations next year with two flights planned in the coming months. The company was founded in 2004.

After a successful trip to space, Richard Branson has urged young people to achieve their dreams and aim for the stars, quite literally.

Giving out the message of never giving up, Branson told youngsters in a tweet, "To the next generation of dreamers: if we can do this, just imagine what you can do". Branson said he had always wanted to fly high and his dream has come true as he became one of the first humans to travel on commercial spaceflight.

"I was once a child with a dream looking up to the stars. Now I'm an adult in a spaceship looking down to our beautiful Earth," he said in a live feed video.

Branson believes space is 'for all humanity' and has thus teamed up with Omaze to give interested candidates a chance to travel to space. Interested people can now fill in their details on Omaze.com/space.

"Every charitable donation goes to support Space For Humanity and you’ll be entered into the Omaze sweepstake for the chance to win two seats aboard one of the first commercial Virgin Galactic space flights," Branson announced.