Virgin Galactic's first flight will be a research mission|Ronrosano|CC BY-SA 3.0
Virgin Galactic announced it will begin its commercial space tourism flight at the end of this month and is targeting a launch window from June 27 to June 30.
The company shares soared more than 40% at the news in extended trading.
The first flight will be a research mission, followed by a second commercial spaceflight in August, and expects to operate monthly space flights from then on, per Virgin Galactic.
The company founded by Richard Branson, which will take people 260,000ft above Earth, has already sold more than 800 tickets.