July 13 Reuters Virgin Galactic Holdings said on Thursday that the space tourism startup will launch its second commercial flight in a window that opens next month after a successful first flight in June.

The firm is among the few U.S.based space companies, along with Jeff Bezos39; Blue Origin and Elon Musk39;s SpaceX, to cater to the burgeoning demand for commercial space operations and space travel.

Shares of the company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson rose about 3 in trading before the bell, after having gained 11 so far this year.

Details on crew, pilots and the flight manifest for the mission set to launch in a window opening on Aug. 10, will be released later, the company said.

A threemember crew of its firstmission 39;Galactic0139; made the brief suborbital ride, marking a longdelayed breakthrough for the company, finally inaugurating commercial service after being fraught with development setbacks for nearly 20 years.

Virgin Galactic had earlier said it has already booked a backlog of some 800 customers, charging most from 250,000 to 450,000 per seat, and envisions eventually building a large enough fleet to accommodate more than one flight a day.

The 39;Galactic0239; mission will also be live streamed on the company39;s website.

Reporting by Jaspreet Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil

Source Reuters