If all goes well, the two tests will be the last before Virgin’s space tourism starts in earnest. It hopes to fly company founder Sir Richard Branson into space sometime in the first quarter of 2021, effectively kicking off the company’s tourist business. Not that you’ll want to rush to the front of the line. With tickets costing $250,000 each (and possibly more), Virgin Galactic’s initial service will cater solely to wealthy people eager to say they’ve been to space.

This will be the first spaceflight from Spaceport America, and will be the first since a February 2019 test. A lot is riding on these last tests besides Virgin’s pride. The company is still bleeding money, with a net loss of $63 million in the second quarter of 2020. It can’t really recoup its losses until it’s serving paying customers, and that means finishing its pre-service tests in a timely fashion.

Virgin Galactic’s repeatedly-delayed plans for commercial spaceflight are drawing closer, after the company completed another glide test at its Spaceport America HQ in New Mexico. The VSS Unity once again released from its mothership at about 50,000 feet, but went a bit faster this time and reached speeds of Mach 0.85.

CEO George Whitesides said in a statement that “It was an important test that, pending data review, means we can now start preparing the vehicles for powered flight. Our focus for this year remains unchanged on ensuring the vehicles and our operations are prepared for long-term, regular commercial spaceflight service.”

The pieces are finally starting to come together for Virgin Galactic’s space tourism — the company has flown SpaceShipTwo from Spaceport America for the first time. It was just a glide test from 50,000 feet up, but the flight let the spaceport fulfill its intended purpose and gave pilots familiarity with the New Mexico airspace. This will also help Virgin compare performance against similar maneuvers from earlier tests.

And before you ask: yes, Virgin took steps to keep crews safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. It reworked operational elements to keep people apart, and required “universal” mask usage.

The corporation conducted VSS Unity’s first test flight with a passenger onboard back in February, two months after its first ever flight to space. It will now complete the vehicle’s final tests from New Mexico after the company relocates it and its carrier aircraft, VMS Eve, over the summer. One of the flights could have Branson himself as a passenger, seeing as he intends to fly to the edge of space on July 16th, 2019 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11.

Virgin Galactic is also moving 100 staff members to its new HQ, since that’s where it’ll run things from now on. As the company said, the move “signals the final countdown” to the beginning of its commercial spaceflight service.

Sir Richard Branson said in a statement:

“Our Virgin Galactic adventure has been intertwined with New Mexico and Spaceport America right from the start and our stories have unfolded together. New Mexico delivered on its promise to build a world-first and world-class spaceport. Today, I could not be more excited to announce, that in return, we are now ready to bring New Mexico a world-first, world-class spaceline. Virgin Galactic is coming home to New Mexico where together we will open space to change the world for good.”

It’s going to be special to see the world’s most beautiful spaceship fly from one of the world’s most wonderfully designed buildings, Spaceport America https://t.co/kSsQC1PQJw @virgingalactic pic.twitter.com/owrz1dOBOy

— Richard Branson (@richardbranson) May 10, 2019

New Mexico will be one of the very few places on the planet which will be hosting human spaceflight launches. We are initiating the move of our spaceship and operations team to New Mexico’s @Spaceport_NM. https://t.co/n35fpAsv2W pic.twitter.com/gDdjuk8UGl

— Virgin Galactic (@virgingalactic) May 10, 2019