Virgin Galactic Slumps After Test Flight to Space Aborted

Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc.’s effort to take tourists into space suffered a setback over the weekend when a test flight was scrubbed shortly after takeoff because of a technical snag. The shares plummeted by the most since March 18 on Monday.

A computer on the company’s SpaceShipTwo Unity that monitors the rocket motor lost connection, the company said in a Twitter thread following the flight Saturday. That triggered an intentional halt to the ignition of the rocket motor, leading to the end of the mission before it could reach space, the company said. The pilots flew the craft back to the Spaceport America launch site in New Mexico and landed safely.