The Sir Richard Branson-owned firm has faced a number of hurdles in trying to launch a commercial service, with repeated delays over the years.
The firm launched Branson and five other passengers into space in July this year on its SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity.
While this flight was a success, US regulators were concerned that the spaceship deviated from its intended path on its return to Earth. This meant that SpaceShipTwo was temporarily barred from flight while an investigation was conducted. On 29 September, the Federal Aviation Administration closed its investigation into the launch and lifted a grounding order it had imposed.
But Virgin has still opted not to continue with another proposed test flight of SpaceShipTwo which was expected to take place as early as mid-October this year.
This follows a statement from the company yesterday that a recent laboratory-based test “flagged a possible reduction in the strength margins of certain materials used to...