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The company’s shares surged as much as 40% to $56.40, their highest since February, after more than doubling in value this year.
The approval from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) comes at a critical time for Branson as his space venture faces off against Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) founder Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc boss Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
Bezos, Branson and Musk have been investing billions of dollars on their rocket startups.
Branson, who is reportedly flying to space himself in a bid to beat rival billionaire Bezos to the final frontier, received the green light just a month after a successful test flight.
Virgin Galactic last month completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico in May, as its SpaceShipTwo craft with a capacity of six passengers glided to a landing on a runway safely with its two pilots.
The company has said it has more than 600 reservations for 90-minute flights that include several minutes of weightlessness, priced at $250,000 a ticket.
“Today’s approval by the FAA … gives us confidence as we proceed toward our first fully crewed test flight this summer,” Virgin Galactic Chief Executive Officer Michael Colglazier said in a statement.
As of Friday afternoon, the company’s stock was on track to post its biggest one-day gain in nearly five months.
