Virgin Galactic Names First Delta Ship Apeiron

A new name has been assigned to Virgin Galactic's first Delta-class spacecraft.

The company announced on Wednesday that the vehicle is called Apeiron. The name was chosen through a public vote. It references an ancient Greek concept of the boundless.

The United States has gone 10 months without a space tourism mission. Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft flew its last passenger mission in January. The program is now paused. Engineering staff have moved to support the New Glenn rocket and the Blue Moon lander.

SpaceX completed its final free-flying Dragon mission in April 2025. The capsule will carry out a few more flights to space stations. Each of those flights is expected to include at least one government astronaut. After those missions, Dragon is scheduled for retirement. No timeline exists for Starship to carry private passengers from Earth.

Virgin Galactic's previous spacecraft, VSS Unity, made its final suborbital flight in June 2024. That flight occurred more than two years ago. The company stated at that time it would shift to a second generation of vehicles. The original plan called for two Delta-class ships to enter service by 2026.

The first Delta-class ship has now rolled onto a runway in Arizona. It is the only Delta vehicle ready for operations at this time. The second ship has not yet entered service. The industry faces a gap in private access to space that continues to widen.

The Apeiron vehicle remains bound by Earth's gravity despite its name. It is currently the only active option for commercial suborbital travel in the country. Regular flights for private customers depend on when the Delta-class fleet actually begins operations.