Virgin Galactic soars and then levels off on first day as publicly traded space company

Like the rocket plane it operates, Virgin Galactic's stock price blasted off on its first day as a publicly traded company, and then glided to a somewhat lower altitude. The company, founded 15 years ago by British billionaire Richard Branson, now bills itself as the "world's first and only publicly traded commercial human spaceflight company." It went public today thanks to a merger with a special-purpose vehicle known as Social Capital Hedosophia, or SCH. SCH took on a 49% share of the merged company, which is known as Virgin Galactic Holdings and traded on the New York Stock Exchange as… Read More