Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc (SPCE) 2024 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon. My name is Louella, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Virgin Galactic's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

午安.我叫 Louella，今天我將擔任您的會議主持人。現在，我歡迎大家參加維珍銀河 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。（操作員指示）

I will now turn the call over to Eric Cerny, Vice President of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, sir.

現在我將電話轉給投資者關係副總裁 Eric Cerny。先生，請繼續。

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Virgin Galactic's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. On the call with me today are Michael Colglazier, Chief Executive Officer; Mike Moses, President of our Spaceline; and Doug Ahrens, Chief Financial Officer. Following our prepared remarks, we will open the call for questions.

謝謝。大家下午好。歡迎參加維珍銀河 2024 年第四季和全年財報電話會議。今天與我一起通話的是執行長 Michael Colglazier； Mike Moses，我們的 Spaceline 總裁；以及財務長Doug Ahrens。在我們準備好發言之後，我們將開始提問。

Our press release and slide presentation that will accompany today's remarks, are available on our Investor Relations website. Please see slide two of the presentation for our safe harbor disclaimer. During today's call, we may make certain forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions, and as a result are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements made on this call.

我們的新聞稿和幻燈片演示將伴隨今天的講話，可以在我們的投資者關係網站上找到。請參閱簡報的第二張投影片，以了解我們的安全港免責聲明。在今天的電話會議中，我們可能會做出某些前瞻性的陳述。這些聲明是基於當前的預期和假設，因此存在風險和不確定性。許多因素可能導致實際事件與本次電話會議中的前瞻性陳述有重大差異。

For more information about these risks and uncertainties, please refer to the risk factors in the company's SEC filings made from time to time. You are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements. And the company specifically disclaims any obligation to update the forward-looking statements that may be discussed during this call today, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Please also note that we will refer to certain non-GAAP financial information on today's call. Please refer to our earnings release for a reconciliation of those non-GAAP financial metrics.

有關這些風險和不確定性的更多信息，請參閱公司不時向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中的風險因素。請注意不要過度依賴前瞻性陳述。本公司明確表示不承擔更新今天電話會議中可能討論的前瞻性陳述的任何義務，無論是由於新資訊、未來事件或其他原因。另請注意，我們將在今天的電話會議上參考某些非 GAAP 財務資訊。請參閱我們的收益報告以了解這些非 GAAP 財務指標的對帳情況。

Turning to our agenda for today's call on page 3. Michael will open the call with a recap of 2024, followed by an in-depth update on the progress of our spaceship program. Mike Moses will join the call, followed by Doug Ahrens, who will provide a financial overview before we turn the call over to Q&A. With that, I would now like to turn the call over to Michael. Michael, go ahead.

翻到第 3 頁，看看我們今天電話會議的議程。邁克爾將在電話會議開始時回顧 2024 年，然後深入介紹我們的太空船計劃的進展。麥克摩西 (Mike Moses) 將參加電話會議，隨後道格阿倫斯 (Doug Ahrens) 將提供財務概覽，然後我們將電話轉入問答環節。說完這些，我現在想把電話轉給麥可。邁克爾，說吧。

Thanks, Eric. 2024 marked an inflection point for Virgin Galactic. We opened the year with our prototype spaceship, demonstrating the amazing customer experience delivered by Virgin Galactic spaceflights, and we closed 2024 by wrapping up the multiyear design phase of our groundbreaking new spaceships. 2025 will be a year of momentum as we are now building the spaceships that will dramatically expand human spaceflight with unprecedented levels of safety, rapid reusability and cost efficiency.

謝謝，埃里克。 2024年是維珍銀河的轉捩點。我們以原型太空船開啟了新的一年，展示了維珍銀河太空飛行帶來的令人驚嘆的客戶體驗，並在 2024 年結束時完成了我們開創性的新太空船的多年設計階段。 2025 年將是勢頭強勁的一年，因為我們正在建造的太空船將以前所未有的安全性、快速重複使用性和成本效益極大地擴展人類太空飛行。

Fabrication of tools and parts for these ships is well underway, as you will see in a moment. And our teams are excited to kick off assembly of our first spaceship next month at our spaceship factory in Phoenix. The production and launch time line for the new ships remains on track with our first commercial research spaceflight expected in the summer of 2026 and the first private astronaut spaceflight in the fall of 2026. We are able to be more specific with projecting our time lines because we now have line of sight to the delivery dates of each and every tool and part that supports assembly.

您馬上就會看到，這些船舶的工具和零件的製造正在順利進行中。我們的團隊非常高興下個月將在鳳凰城的太空船工廠開始組裝我們的第一艘太空船。新飛船的生產和發射時間表仍在按計劃進行，我們的首次商業研究太空飛行預計將於 2026 年夏季進行，首次私人太空人太空飛行預計將於 2026 年秋季進行。我們能夠更具體地規劃我們的時間表，因為我們現在可以看到支援組裝的每個工具和零件的交貨日期。

With this work accelerating, we will spend time on today's call showcasing the advances already made as well as the milestones that will mark our progress going forward. One of the things that I am most excited about has been the transition of Virgin Galactic from an R&D-focused company to a company that builds real assets that drive real value.

隨著這項工作的加速，我們將在今天的電話會議上展示已經取得的進展以及標誌著我們未來進步的里程碑。最讓我興奮的事情之一是維珍銀河從一家專注於研發的公司轉型為創造真正資產、推動真正價值的公司。

I would like to highlight five of these key assets that differentiate our company. Turning to slide 4.

我想強調我們公司與眾不同的五個關鍵資產。翻到幻燈片 4。

First is our new spaceship. These ships will have longer life, faster turnaround times and lower cost per flight than any human-rated spaceship in the world. They are designed to fly twice a week with a lifespan of over 500 spaceflights. This is a breakthrough design and a huge step forward in commercial space.

首先是我們的新太空船。與世界上任何載人太空船相比，這些太空船的壽命更長、週轉時間更短、每次飛行的成本更低。它們的設計飛行時間為每週兩次，使用壽命為超過 500 次太空飛行。這是一個突破性的設計，也是商業空間的一大進步。

Second is our spaceship factory. We've made the needed nonrecurring infrastructure investments, and we are now able to add ships to our fleet quickly and cost effectively with a start to finish cycle time of new spaceships measured in months versus years.

第二是我們的飛船工廠。我們已經進行了必要的非經常性基礎設施投資，現在我們能夠快速且經濟高效地為我們的艦隊添加飛船，新飛船的開始到結束週期只需數月而不是數年。

Third, our rocket system. We've created the world's most powerful hybrid rocket system, which is proudly on display in the Smithsonian.

第三，我們的火箭系統。我們創造了世界上最強大的混合火箭系統，並在史密森尼博物館自豪地展出。

Our rocket system has outstanding safety features that are part of its elegant and reliable design and the quick change capability of our rocket motor supports the fastest refueling and turnaround time of any single space vehicle that is capable of human spaceflight.

我們的火箭系統具有出色的安全特性，這是其優雅可靠的設計的一部分，並且我們的火箭發動機的快速更換能力支持任何能夠進行載人航天的單一航天器最快的加油和周轉時間。

Fourth, our customer and client experience, which is beyond compare. We have curated, honed and demonstrated our industry-leading customer experience, delivering human-first spaceflight for private astronauts and unparalleled microgravity environments for space research and space scientists. Our fifth and enormously valuable asset is our carrier ship platform, internally known as our mothership, which rarely gets the attention it deserves.

第四，我們的客戶和客戶體驗是無與倫比的。我們精心策劃、磨練並展示了我們領先業界的客戶體驗，為私人太空人提供了載人首次太空飛行，並為太空研究和太空科學家提供了無與倫比的微重力環境。我們的第五項也是極為寶貴的資產是我們的運載艦平台，內部稱為母艦，它很少得到應有的關注。

So let's give our carrier ship some airtime as we turn to slide 5. The first of our carrier ships named Eve has supported every test flight and commercial spaceflight for Virgin Galactic to date. This aircraft has several incredible capabilities. Its unique design allows it to reach altitudes of over 50,000 feet, and it can carry payloads weighing up to 35,000 pounds. Many aircraft can carry heavy weight to mid-level altitudes and some aircraft can carry modest payloads above 50,000 feet. But this combination of high altitude heavy lift capability is very rare.

因此，當我們翻到幻燈片 5 時，讓我們給我們的運載艦一些飛行時間。我們的第一艘運載飛​​船「夏娃號」迄今為止支持了維珍銀河的每次試飛和商業太空飛行。這架飛機具有多種令人難以置信的能力。其獨特的設計使其能夠達到超過 50,000 英尺的高度，並可攜帶重達 35,000 磅的有效載荷。許多飛機可以攜帶重物飛到中等高度，有些飛機可以攜帶適度的有效載荷飛到 50,000 英尺以上。但這種高空重型運輸能力的組合非常罕見。

We believe this is an opportunity. Turning to slide 6. As we've worked with industry experts to advance the design and planning of our next carrier ship, we believe the same high altitude heavy lift capability that supports Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceflight business can also be of value to government and research customers, especially when a derivative model adds extended flight duration.

我們相信這是一個機會。翻到幻燈片 6。當我們與產業專家合作推進下一艘運載太空船的設計和規劃時，我們相信，支援維珍銀河亞軌道航太業務的相同高空重型運載能力也可以為政府和研究客戶帶來價值，特別是當衍生模型增加延長飛行時間時。

HALE aircraft, HALE being an acronym for high altitude, long endurance air vehicles are needed for several types of government and research missions, and we plan to explore the opportunity for a unique HALE-heavy derivative of our carrier platform in the future. But first things first and the absolute first thing is to bring Virgin Galactic to EBITDA positive operations by putting two of our new spaceships into service.

HALE 飛機，HALE 是高空長航時飛行器的縮寫，用於多種類型的政府和研究任務，我們計劃在未來探索在我們的運載平台中開發獨特的 HALE 重型衍生產品的機會。但當務之急是，透過投入兩艘新飛船，讓維珍銀河實現 EBITDA 正成長。

So let's turn to slide 7 and talk about how we are unlocking the growth and profitability of Virgin Galactic. 2024 was the year we designed our new spaceships. 2026 will be the year we fly our new spaceships. But 2025 is the year we actually build the first of these amazing new vehicles. With safety above all as the bedrock value of Virgin Galactic, we are working diligently to bring these ships to life with exceptional quality embedded at every stage.

那麼讓我們翻到第 7 張投影片，談談我們如何釋放維珍銀河的成長和獲利能力。 2024 年是我們設計新型太空船的一年。 2026 年將是我們發射新型太空船的一年。但 2025 年才是我們真正製造出第一輛這種令人驚嘆的新型汽車的年份。安全至上是維珍銀河的基石，我們正努力讓這些飛船在每個階段都具有卓越的品質。

One of the places we have invested heavily in quality is the long-lasting aerospace tools that are used to build the parts of our spaceship. These tools are key to creating the best possible parts and the most efficient assembly for each and every spaceship. These tools are also key to creating long-term value as they will be used again and again to expand our fleet.

我們在品質方面投入巨資的領域之一是用於建造太空船部件的耐用航空航天工具。這些工具是製造每艘太空船的最佳零件和最高效組裝的關鍵。這些工具也是創造長期價值的關鍵，因為它們將被重複用於擴大我們的車隊。

Slides 8 through 13 of the presentation have been included to provide a glimpse into the incredible progress that's been made by our Virgin Galactic teammates as well as by the hugely dedicated teams at Qarbon Aerospace and Bell Textron. And while I can't name them all on this call, we are extremely appreciative of the outstanding work that is happening across the many companies who make up our extended supply chain.

簡報的第 8 至 13 張幻燈片旨在讓人們一睹維珍銀河隊友以及 Qarbon Aerospace 和貝爾德事隆的極其敬業的團隊所取得的令人難以置信的進步。雖然我無法在這次電話會議上一一列舉所有公司，但我們非常感謝構成我們擴展供應鏈的眾多公司所做的出色工作。

All these groups are excited to be part of commercial spaceship development, and they are building momentum as our collective efforts become very visible and tangible. This is an unusual topic for an earnings call, but I think it's important to share this level of detail, as it underpins our progress and our forecasted delivery dates. There are three structural elements that come together to build our spaceships, the fuselage, the feather and the wing.

所有這些團體都很高興能夠參與商業太空船的開發，並且隨著我們的共同努力變得非常明顯和切實，他們正在積聚動力。對於收益電話會議來說，這是一個不尋常的話題，但我認為分享這種細節很重要，因為它支撐著我們的進度和預測的交付日期。建造我們的太空船需要三種結構元素：機身、羽毛和機翼。

If you're following along with the presentation, there will be a graphic of the spaceship in the upper right corner of these upcoming slides, and the images on the slide refer to the sections highlighted in green. In slide 8, you can see the primary fuselage subassembly tools that are located in Qarbon's fabrication facility. These tools are used to fabricate the upper and lower skins of the cabin shell.

如果您正在跟隨演示，則在這些即將播放的幻燈片的右上角會出現一張太空船的圖形，幻燈片上的圖像指的是以綠色突出顯示的部分。在投影片 8 中，您可以看到位於 Qarbon 製造工廠的主要機身組件工具。這些工具用於製造機艙外殼的上下蒙皮。

Moving to slide 9, you can see the feather subassembly tooling. These tools have highly complex geometries, and they are used to make the largest part in our spaceship.

移至投影片 9，您可以看到羽毛子組件工具。這些工具具有高度複雜的幾何形狀，用於製造我們太空船中最大的零件。

Slide 10 shows the bulkhead, which is the major structural element that separates the cabin from the rocket system. The image shows the sheets of carbon fiber being laid up within the bulkhead tool before the entire assembly is sent to the autoclave to cure the part.

幻燈片 10 展示了艙壁，它是將艙室與火箭系統分隔開的主要結構元素。圖中顯示了碳纖維片在隔板工具內鋪設的過程，之後整個組件被送入高壓釜進行固化。

On slide 11, we are using an example with the wing to give you a sense of how the entire part fabrication process works. Starting at the left, the first image shows technicians placing layers of carbon fiber and precise patterns with varying thicknesses on the tool. Once this lay up process is complete, the tool and the carbon fiber are moved into an autoclave, which is a huge pressurized oven that cures the part in a way that gives our composite structures their strength. On the right, you can see the finished wing part ready for inspection and shipping to the spaceship factory in Phoenix.

在投影片 11 上，我們使用機翼作為範例，讓您了解整個零件製造流程的工作原理。從左邊開始，第一張圖片顯示技術人員在工具上放置不同厚度的碳纖維層和精確的圖案。一旦完成該鋪層過程，工具和碳纖維就會被移入高壓釜，這是一個巨大的加壓爐，可以以一種方式固化零件，使複合結構具有強度。在右側，您可以看到已完成的機翼部件準備接受檢查並運送到鳳凰城的太空船工廠。

On slide 12, you can see the process steps used to create our oxidizer tank. This tank is a critical component of the spaceship that holds our liquid oxidizer for the rocket motor, which powers the spaceship to space. The oxidizer tank in our prototype ship, Unity, only supported 40 to 50 flights before needing replacement, which would have required extensive maintenance downtime.

在第 12 張投影片上，您可以看到用於製造氧化劑罐的製程步驟。這個罐子是太空船的關鍵部件，它容納著火箭發動機的液體氧化劑，為太空船進入太空提供動力。我們的原型飛船 Unity 中的氧化劑罐僅支援 40 到 50 次飛行就需要更換，這將需要大量的維護停機時間。

The first of our new tanks is complete and is shown here in the test stand about to enter cycle testing. Cycle testing will establish the expected lifespan of the tank, which we project to be many times higher than Unity's. This is one example of the many places we have redesigned our spaceship to minimize maintenance downtimes and enable multiple spaceflights per week on a sustained basis. Our next tank will be entering the autoclave this coming week. This tank is designated for our first spaceship, and it is on schedule to arrive in Phoenix in time for installation into the fuselage.

我們的第一個新坦克已經完工，並在測試台上展示，即將進入循環測試。循環測試將確定水箱的預期壽命，我們預計該壽命將比 Unity 高出許多倍。這是我們重新設計太空船的眾多地方之一，旨在最大限度地減少維護停機時間，並持續實現每週多次太空飛行。我們的下一個水箱將於下週進入高壓滅菌器。這個油箱是為我們的第一艘太空船設計的，它將按計劃及時抵達鳳凰城並安裝到機身內。

Slide 13 shows a still frame from a video our Spaceline President, Mike Moses, released this morning, highlighting the top 10 things he was excited to see happen over the last month. If you haven't seen it, it's a quick and fun way to showcase our progress, and I encourage you to watch it on our website or social channels. This will be an ongoing feature for Mike every month or two, and we will make it available to our customers, our investor base and our fans so they can track along with our progress.

投影片 13 展示了我們的 Spaceline 總裁 Mike Moses 今早發布的一段影片的靜態畫面，重點介紹了過去一個月他最興奮看到的十件事。如果您還沒有看過，這是一種展示我們進展的快速而有趣的方式來，我鼓勵您在我們的網站或社交管道上觀看。這將是 Mike 每隔一兩個月持續推出的功能，我們將向我們的客戶、投資者群體和粉絲提供該功能，以便他們能夠追蹤我們的進度。

Slide 14 previews several key milestones that will be taking place in 2025 and 2026. In March, we will start assembly of our first spaceship in our new spaceship factory. This moment has been years in the making, and our manufacturing team in Phoenix is chomping at the bit.

幻燈片 14 預覽了 2025 年和 2026 年將發生的幾個重要里程碑。三月份，我們將在新的飛船工廠開始組裝我們的第一艘太空船。這一刻已經醞釀多年，我們在鳳凰城的製造團隊正焦急地等待著。

Building and testing of the first ship continues throughout the year, and we will be highlighting the many tangible milestones along the way to mark our progress. Our first test flight, a glide flight, is expected in spring 2026, which will lead to our first research spaceflight in summer 2026 and our first private astronaut flight, which is expected in the fall of 2026.

第一艘船的建造和測試將全年持續進行，我們將重點介紹沿途的許多實際里程碑，以標記我們的進展。我們的首次試飛（滑翔飛行）預計將於 2026 年春季進行，隨後我們將於 2026 年夏季進行首次研究太空飛行，並於 2026 年秋季進行首次私人太空人飛行。

It's exciting to see the momentum and visible progress ramping up. As the ship comes together, we will be inviting our customers into our spaceship factory to meet the team and see how the ships that will bring them to space are being built. Speaking of our customers, I was recently talking with one of our future astronauts about how different our approach to building these new spaceships is relative to how our prototype spaceship was built. She was very curious to understand how we are building and flight testing new spaceships so much faster than we had done in the past. I imagine that if a long-term customer is curious, is likely some of you are as well.

看到這種勢頭和明顯進步不斷增強，令人興奮。當飛船組裝完畢後，我們將邀請客戶參觀我們的飛船工廠，與團隊見面，了解將帶他們進入太空的飛船是如何建造的。說到我們的客戶，我最近與我們的一位未來太空人討論了我們建造這些新太空船的方法與建造原型太空船的方法有何不同。她非常好奇，想知道我們如何比過去更快地建造和測試新型太空船。我想，如果一個長期客戶感到好奇，那麼你們中的一些人可能也會如此。

So I've invited Mike Moses, our Spaceline President, to share his perspective on the changes that drive confidence in our current schedule. Over to you, Mike.

因此，我邀請了我們的 Spaceline 總裁 Mike Moses 來分享他對推動我們當前計劃信心的變化的看法。交給你了，麥克。

Thanks, Michael. I've been part of Virgin Galactic as we built and did the flight testing for Spaceship Unity. Building and flight testing are two important phases. I want to talk about how we are approaching both of them in a different way with our Delta class program. Let me start by talking about the build phase, where we have high confidence in the schedule based on three factors: design software, high-quality suppliers and an experienced team.

謝謝，麥可。我曾參與維珍銀河公司的建造和太空船團結號的飛行測試。建造和飛行測試是兩個重要階段。我想談談我們如何透過 Delta 課程計劃以不同的方式處理這兩個問題。首先讓我談談建造階段，我們對進度計畫充滿信心，這基於三個因素：設計軟體、高品質的供應商和經驗豐富的團隊。

First, before we even started making tools and parts, we built the spaceship digitally using advanced model-based software. This digital twin of our spaceship allows for precision in the design, especially as it relates to how various parts will fit together and interact in the real world. Each part is referenced to a fixed plane exactly where it will be placed in the spaceship. And this lets us determine everything from where to place the bolts on one part to the bolt holes on the adjacent part to where the brackets need to be placed to hold the wiring and the plumbing.

首先，在我們開始製造工具和零件之前，我們使用先進的基於模型的軟體以數位方式建造了太空船。我們的太空船的數位孿生使得設計更加精確，特別是涉及到各個部件如何在現實世界中組合和相互作用。每個部件都參考一個固定平面，該平面恰好位於太空船的放置位置。這樣我們就可以確定所有的事情，從一個部件上螺栓的位置到相鄰部件上的螺栓孔，再到需要放置支架來固定電線和管道的位置。

Despite best efforts, sometimes parts don't perfectly line up. So our design allows for certain parts to have tolerance to float and absorb any small deviations that may occur during manufacturing. This allows for a speedy assembly as the parts arrive into Phoenix.

儘管盡了最大努力，但有時各個部分仍無法完美對齊。因此，我們的設計允許某些零件具有浮動公差，並吸收製造過程中可能出現的任何小偏差。這樣，當零件抵達菲尼克斯時，就可以快速進行組裝。

Second, our parts are being made by suppliers who are industry leaders, companies that are used to mass-producing parts. They have proven processes and controls in place to make and inspect all parts before shipping them to our spaceship factory in Phoenix. Coupled with the digital thread I just mentioned, we are making these Delta spaceships in the same manner and with the same suppliers as modern aircraft.

其次，我們的零件供應商都是行業領導者，這些公司習慣於大規模生產零件。他們擁有成熟的流程和控制措施，可以在將所有零件運送到我們位於鳳凰城的太空船工廠之前進行製造和檢查。結合我剛才提到的數位主線，我們將採用與現代飛機相同的方式並與相同的供應商製造這些 Delta 太空船。

By comparison, our prototype Spaceship Unity was built and assembled in a very linear fashion, often requiring the assembly sequence to pause as we needed to rework parts to ensure the proper fit.

相較之下，我們的原型太空船 Unity 是以非常線性的方式建造和組裝的，經常需要暫停組裝順序，因為我們需要重新加工零件以確保正確配合。

Lastly, our team has experience with assembling spaceships. The folks setting up and running our spaceship factory are our most experienced technicians and leaders. They built Unity and we'll be bringing all of these learnings to bear. Our factory itself is laid out based on our past experiences.

最後，我們的團隊有組裝太空船的經驗。建立和運作我們太空船工廠的人員是我們最有經驗的技術人員和領導者。他們創建了 Unity，我們將把所有這些經驗教訓運用到實踐中。我們的工廠本身是根據過去的經驗進行佈局的。

We have assembly work areas designed to provide an extremely efficient and effective build flow, and our engineering teams will be deployed directly to the shop floor, so they can enable rapid resolution of any issues that may arise. In summary, Delta was designed intentionally to allow for an efficient build using aerospace industry-proven methods. The model-based software, the precision of the tools, combined with our suppliers' process controls and our highly experienced assembly team enables a much shorter time line.

我們的組裝工作區旨在提供極其高效的建置流程，我們的工程團隊將直接部署到車間，以便能夠快速解決可能出現的任何問題。總而言之，Delta 的設計旨在採用航空航太業已驗證的方法來實現高效建造。基於模型的軟體、工具的精確度，加上我們供應商的製程控制和我們經驗豐富的組裝團隊，可以大幅縮短時間軸。

Now let me pivot to discuss what happens once the spaceship is built, which is flight testing. It's important to keep in mind that Delta is able to take advantage of the years of flight testing that went into Spaceship Unity. Unity required moving in small incremental steps to build up the knowledge about the spaceship's performance and limits. The test flights of Delta will be much more like regression testing, where we are incrementally expanding how Delta flies, but doing so by comparing it to how we know Unity flew.

現在讓我來討論一下太空船建造完成後會發生什麼，也就是飛行測試。重要的是要記住，達美航空能夠利用多年來對「團結號太空船」進行的飛行測試。Unity 需要透過小的漸進步驟來累積有關太空船性能和極限的知識。達美航空的試飛將更像是回歸測試，我們將逐步擴展達美航空的飛行方式，但透過將其與我們所了解的 Unity 的飛行方式進行比較來實現。

We aren't forging ahead into unknown territory. Another key difference between Unity and Delta is the use of our Iron Bird, a full scale engineering test bed of the Delta spaceship systems and electronics. Gathering this test data prior to flight test helps shorten the timeline.

我們不會向未知領域邁進。Unity 和 Delta 之間的另一個主要區別是使用我們的 Iron Bird，這是 Delta 太空船系統和電子設備的全尺寸工程測試平台。在飛行測試之前收集這些測試數據有助於縮短時間表。

Finally, while Delta will fly a similar number of test points, its ability to fly more frequently means that we will complete flight testing in months instead of years. These specific differences in how our Delta ships are being built and tested underpin the confidence in our delivery, and we are incredibly excited to send our first Delta ship to space in the summer of next year.

最後，雖然達美航空將飛行類似數量的測試點，但其更頻繁的飛行能力意味著我們將在幾個月而不是幾年內完成飛行測試。我們的達美太空船在建造和測試方面的具體差異增強了我們交付的信心，我們非常高興能在明年夏天將我們的第一艘達美太空船送入太空。

With that, I'll hand the call over to our CFO, Doug Ahrens, to share a financial update and outlook.

說完這些，我將把電話交給我們的財務長 Doug Ahrens，分享財務更新和展望。

Thanks, Mike. Good afternoon, everyone.

謝謝，麥克。大家下午好。

Turning to slide 15. In addition to presenting our recent financial results, I'll share my perspective on the tremendous strides we've made to build the assets that will create a powerful economic engine for Virgin Galactic. Starting with the fourth quarter of 2024, we generated revenue of $400,000 from future astronaut membership fees.

翻到第 15 張投影片。除了介紹我們最近的財務表現外，我還將分享我們在為維珍銀河打造強大經濟引擎的資產方面取得的巨大進步。從 2024 年第四季開始，我們從未來太空人會員費中獲得了 40 萬美元的收入。

As our Delta spaceship program advances, it drives a favorable trend in operating expenses. Total operating expenses for the fourth quarter were $82 million compared to $117 million in the prior year period as our spending has shifted from R&D to capital investments in manufacturing assets that will be leveraged to build multiple spaceships. Adjusted EBITDA showed a favorable trend as well, being negative $63 million in the fourth quarter compared to negative $84 million in the prior year period. Free cash flow was negative $117 million in the fourth quarter at the low end of the range we guided in our last earnings call.

隨著我們的 Delta 太空船計劃的推進，它推動了營運費用的良好趨勢。第四季的總營運費用為 8,200 萬美元，而去年同期為 1.17 億美元，因為我們的支出已從研發轉向製造資產的資本投資，這些資產將用於建造多艘太空船。調整後的 EBITDA 也呈現良好的趨勢，第四季為負 6,300 萬美元，而去年同期為負 8,400 萬美元。第四季的自由現金流為負 1.17 億美元，處於我們上次收益電話會議所預測範圍的低端。

Turning to slide 16. For the full fiscal year 2024, we generated revenue of $7 million, driven by two commercial spaceflights as well as future astronaut membership fees. Notably, average ticket prices on the last spaceflight rose to $800,000 per seat compared to just over $300,000 per seat in the prior year, indicating the incredible value being delivered to our astronauts through our spaceflight experience. The favorable trends in our financials were even more visible for the full year.

翻到第 16 張投影片。2024 財年全年，我們創造了 700 萬美元的收入，這主要得益於兩次商業太空飛行以及未來太空人的會員費。值得注意的是，上次太空飛行的平均票價上漲至每座 80 萬美元，而前一年每座票價僅為 30 萬美元多一點，這表明我們的太空飛行體驗為太空人帶來了不可思議的價值。全年來看，我們的財務狀況向好趨勢更加明顯。

As a result of cost reduction efforts and a shift toward investment in manufacturing assets for spaceship production, total operating expenses were $384 million in 2024, reflecting a 29% reduction from $538 million in the prior year. We reported a GAAP net loss of $347 million, representing a 31% improvement compared to $502 million in the prior year.

由於成本削減措施和向太空船生產製造資產投資的轉變，2024 年總營運費用為 3.84 億美元，比前一年的 5.38 億美元減少了 29%。我們報告的 GAAP 淨虧損為 3.47 億美元，與前一年的 5.02 億美元相比改善了 31%。

Adjusted EBITDA for the year was negative $289 million, an improvement of 32% (technical difficulty) in the prior year. Obviously, these improvements are a result of Virgin Galactic moving beyond the heavy R&D phase of spaceship design and now building manufacturing assets we will use to cost effectively build our fleet.

本年度調整後的 EBITDA 為負 2.89 億美元，較前一年改善 32%（技術難度）。顯然，這些改進是維珍銀河公司超越飛船設計繁重研發階段的結果，現在正在建造製造資產，我們將使用這些資產以經濟高效地建造我們的飛船隊。

Michael showed pictures of the tooling that has been created to build spaceship components. These are high-quality value-creating assets that give us the capability to repeatedly build additional spaceships at a relatively low variable cost of $50 million to $60 million each, enabling a payback period of under 6 months for each new spaceship. Approximately half of our spending in 2025 is expected to be for one-time capital expenditures for tooling manufacturing capacity and the production of our first two new Delta class spaceships.

麥可展示了用於製造太空船部件的工具的圖片。這些都是高品質的增值資產，使我們能夠以每艘 5000 萬至 6000 萬美元的相對較低的變動成本反覆建造更多太空船，從而使每艘新太空船的投資回收期不到 6 個月。預計到 2025 年，我們的支出中約有一半將用於工具製造能力和生產前兩艘新型德爾塔級太空船的一次性資本支出。

Our balance sheet reflects this growing capital investment, which appears as property, plant and equipment, or PP&E. With these investments, the book value of our PP&E currently exceeds $200 million, and the book value of PP&E is expected to continue to grow and to nearly double by the end of 2025.

我們的資產負債表反映了這種不斷增長的資本投資，它表現為財產、廠房和設備，即PP&E。透過這些投資，我們的 PP&E 帳面價值目前超過 2 億美元，預計 PP&E 帳面價值將持續成長，到 2025 年底將成長近一倍。

Moving to slide 17. We ended the year with $657 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. In 2024, we generated $138 million in gross proceeds through an at-the-market or ATM equity offering program.

移至投影片 17。截至本財政年度末，我們的現金、現金等價物及有價證券總額為 6.57 億美元。2024 年，我們透過市場或 ATM 股票發行計畫獲得了 1.38 億美元的總收益。

Moving to our projection. Revenue for the first quarter of 2025 is expected to be approximately $400,000 for astronaut membership fees. Forecasted free cash flow for the first quarter of 2025 is expected to be in the range of negative $115 million to $125 million. We expect cash spending to decelerate through 2025 as we complete the investments in tooling and manufacturing capacity to build spaceships. We are tightly managing our spending with fiscal discipline across the board.

轉向我們的預測。預計 2025 年第一季太空人會員費收入約 40 萬美元。預計 2025 年第一季的自由現金流將在負 1.15 億至 1.25 億美元之間。隨著我們完成對建造太空船的工具和製造能力的投資，我們預計到 2025 年現金支出將會減速。我們正全面嚴格財政紀律，管理支出。

Turning to slide 18. We are providing a recap of our economic model, which clearly shows the business opportunity in front of us. Right now, we are laser-focused on achieving the economics in the first column with the introduction of our initial fleet of two new Delta class spaceships.

翻到第 18 張投影片。我們正在對我們的經濟模式進行回顧，它清楚地顯示了我們面前的商業機會。目前，我們正全神貫注於實現第一列的經濟效益，並推出兩艘新型 Delta 級太空船。

With just two spaceships and current pricing of $600,000 per seat, we expect to achieve an annualized level of approximately $450 million of revenue. Because of the tremendous value being delivered to our astronauts at current pricing of $600,000 per seat, our contribution margins are forecasted to exceed 80%, resulting in adjusted EBITDA of about $100 million per year with just our first two spaceships in service.

僅憑兩艘太空船，目前每座售價 60 萬美元，我們預計年收入將達到約 4.5 億美元。由於以目前每座位 60 萬美元的價格為我們的太空人帶來的巨大價值，我們的貢獻利潤率預計將超過 80%，僅憑我們投入使用的前兩艘太空船，每年的調整後 EBITDA 就將達到約 1 億美元。

Profits have the potential to grow exponentially as we add spaceships and another launch vehicle to our fleet at Spaceport America in New Mexico. Michael outlined the outstanding progress we are making with spaceship production and the key milestones ahead, leading up to commercial spaceflights next year. As we progress through these exciting milestones and march toward profitability with two new spaceships, we will continue to evaluate opportunities to optimize our balance sheet and also deliver a winning outcome for all our stakeholders.

隨著我們在新墨西哥州美國太空港的艦隊中增加太空船和另一枚運載火箭，利潤有可能呈指數級增長。邁克爾概述了我們在太空船生產方面取得的突出進展以及未來的關鍵里程碑，為明年的商業太空飛行奠定了基礎。隨著我們不斷實現這些令人興奮的里程碑，並憑藉兩艘新飛船向盈利邁進，我們將繼續評估優化資產負債表的機會，並為所有利益相關者帶來雙贏的結果。

With that, I'll turn the call back over to Michael.

說完這些，我就把電話轉回給麥可。

Thanks, Doug. As you can see, outstanding progress is underway across the company. As I mentioned at the opening, 2025 is a year of momentum, and that momentum has already begun. Our entire company is laser-focused on delivering these first two Delta spaceships in a timely fashion, consistent with the scheduled milestones discussed today. We are driving effective execution across all elements of the program, and we do so with the belief in our mission and excitement to see our first ship in space next summer.

謝謝，道格。如您所見，整個公司正在取得顯著進展。正如我在開幕式上提到的，2025年是勢頭強勁的一年，而且這種勢頭已經開始。我們整個公司都專注於及時交付這兩艘 Delta 飛船，與今天討論的預定里程碑保持一致。我們正在推動該計劃所有要素的有效執行，我們這樣做是因為我們堅信我們的使命，並且對明年夏天看到我們的第一艘飛船進入太空感到興奮。

Let's open the call for questions.

讓我們開始提問吧。

(Operator Instructions) Before we take our first question, I'd like to turn the call over to Eric Cerny, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

（操作員指示）在我們回答第一個問題之前，我想將電話轉給投資者關係部的 Eric Cerny。請繼續。

Thank you. For awareness, we filed a couple of post effective amendments to our Form S-3 registration statement and a prospectus supplement this afternoon. These filings relate to our existing ATM program and our filing status. There is no new ATM program. Thank you, operator.

謝謝。為了提高意識，我們今天下午對我們的 S-3 表格註冊聲明和招股說明書補充文件提交了幾項生效後修訂。這些文件與我們現有的 ATM 計劃和我們的文件狀態有關。沒有新的 ATM 程式。謝謝您，接線生。

We're ready for the first question.

我們已經準備好回答第一個問題了。

Greg Konrad, Jefferies.

傑富瑞的格雷格·康拉德。

I appreciate all the detail with the time line of flights in 2026. But how quickly do you think you can kind of ramp up from there? And then if we think about your baseline initial fleet model, is that a good baseline for 2027 now that time line has been locked in, just thinking about the speed of flights in 2027?

我很感謝有關 2026 年航班時間表的所有詳細資訊。但是您認為您能以多快的速度從那裡開始提升呢？然後，如果我們考慮您的基線初始機隊模型，那麼現在時間線已經鎖定，這是否是 2027 年的一個良好基線，只考慮 2027 年的航班速度？

Greg, it's Michael. And I'll give a start to that, and Mike Moses is as a bonus with us today, and I'll let him add his two cents as well. So we will have done the ground testing and the flight testing to give us confidence in the vehicles, and we will have planned and have planned our maintenance strategies to enable these ships to turn on the pace that we've talked about twice a week pretty much from the time we're ready to put them into private astronaut service, so -- which we talked about in the fall.

格雷格，我是麥可。首先我要開始說這個，今天 Mike Moses 也跟我們在一起，我也想讓他發表一下自己的看法。因此，我們將進行地面測試和飛行測試，以增強我們對這些飛行器的信心，並且我們將製定維護策略，以使這些飛行器能夠按照我們談論的速度每週啟動兩次，基本上從我們準備將它們投入私人宇航員服務的時候開始，所以 - 我們在秋天討論過這一點。

And so to your second part of your question, 2027, we feel we should be pretty much on track for the pace we've been talking. I think it's prudent for us to give ourselves a little bit of pacing, help our teams get ready to what will be truly unprecedented volumes of not just commercial space, but any humans in space at that volume and make sure that we are delivering the best customer experience every time.

因此，對於您問題的第二部分，即 2027 年，我們認為我們應該基本上按照我們一直在談論的步伐前進。我認為，我們應該謹慎地調整節奏，幫助我們的團隊為前所未有的規模做好準備，這不僅是商業空間，也是任何人類在太空中都應面臨的問題，並確保我們每次都能提供最佳的客戶體驗。

So we will prudently ramp ourselves up a little bit as we lean into that. But I believe 2027 if not right, January 1, right at the beginning of that year, we should be up at a pace that we've talked. Mike, anything you'd like to add on that?

因此，當我們傾向於這樣做時，我們會謹慎地稍微提高一點自己的水平。但我相信，如果不是在 2027 年，也就是 1 月 1 日，也就是那一年的年初，我們就應該按照我們談論的速度前進。麥克，您還有什麼要補充的嗎？

Yes. No, just in support of that, our test campaign, if you're familiar with flight testing, kind of can be made up of several parts, a thing called DT and OT, development test and operational test. And we're able to combine the two. So while we do our flight testing program, we'll be testing out the operational side of things, both in the air and on the ground.

是的。不，只是為了支持這一點，我們的測試活動，如果你熟悉飛行測試，可以由幾個部分組成，稱為 DT 和 OT，開發測試和操作測試。我們能夠將兩者結合起來。因此，在我們進行飛行測試計劃的同時，我們將在空中和地面測試事物的操作方面。

And so you'll see some turnaround times during our flight test program that are fairly short, representative of the commercial service turn times, and you'll see some that are longer as we do more detailed data analysis. But the idea being we get our feet underneath us in the development program, the test program and then that last part of 2026. So Michael, as you said, we would hit the ground running at full rate in 2027.

因此，您會發現我們的飛行測試程序中的一些週轉時間相當短，代表了商業服務的周轉時間，而隨著我們進行更詳細的數據分析，您會看到一些週轉時間更長。但我們的想法是，在開發計劃、測試計劃以及 2026 年的最後階段做好準備。所以邁克爾，正如你所說，我們將在 2027 年全速投入工作。

I mean -- and I guess just as a follow-up to that, first research spaceflight in summer, first private astronaut flight in fall. Should we expect multiple research spaceflights in that window before you get to the first private astronaut? Or kind of what's in the manifest between those two events?

我的意思是——我想作為後續行動，第一次研究太空飛行將在夏季進行，第一次私人宇航員飛行將在秋季進行。在迎來第一位私人太空人之前，我們是否應該期待在那個窗口期內進行多次研究太空飛行？或者這兩件事之間有什麼表現？

Yes, Greg, exactly. I won't give specific guidance on the numbers of flights planned. But yes, on the order of 6 to 10 spaceflights to test out all the various aspects. We'll be flying a mix of research payloads, employees, test subjects, checking out the cabin. But really, the point is to test out the systems as they go to space. And again, in my remarks, you heard me say, just as a reminder, this isn't the first spaceship to go to space, right?

是的，格雷格，確實如此。我不會就計劃的航班數量給出具體的指導。但是的，大約需要 6 到 10 次太空飛行來測試各個方面。我們將運送研究有效載荷、員工、測試對象，並檢查機艙。但實際上，重點是在系統進入太空時進行測試。再說一次，在我的演講中，你們聽到我說，只是提醒一下，這不是第一艘進入太空的太空船，對吧？

So we're building off the back of Unity. So we're really just testing the differences that we built into Delta. And so a similar number of test points, but yes, I think we'll be able to go rapidly through the test program.

因此，我們依靠 Unity 進行建造。所以我們實際上只是在測試我們在 Delta 中構建的差異。因此測試點的數量相似，但是是的，我認為我們能夠快速完成測試程序。

And then maybe just one last one. As the schedule has firmed up and you kind of have dates, like what's your current thinking around reopening the order book and maybe any indications when we could see that happen?

然後也許只剩下最後一個了。由於時間表已經確定，而且日期也已經確定，那麼您目前對重新開放訂單簿有什麼想法，以及我們何時可以看到這種情況發生的任何跡象？

It's back to Michael, Greg. I still believe the right timing for people to come on in Virgin Galactic is around a two year window. And as you, I believe, know, we have a solid book of business that will consume up our first year.

回到邁克爾，格雷格。我仍然相信，人們加入維珍銀河的最佳時機是兩年左右。我相信您也知道，我們擁有大量業務，足以支撐我們第一年的業務。

So as we reach, I'd say, the end of this year, perhaps the opening of next, but probably the end of this year, I think that's the right time to begin open up -- opening up, say, reasonable sized tranches of sales. I don't think we'll just throw the gates open. I think we'll pull in a group at a time and continue to ensure we've got an order book in advance of the capacity of our vehicles going forward.

因此，我想說，當我們到達今年年底，也許是明年年初，但可能是今年年底時，我認為這是開始開放的正確時機 - 開放合理規模的銷售部分。我認為我們不會輕易敞開大門。我認為我們會一次拉一批人，並繼續確保我們提前收到訂單，以滿足我們車輛未來的容量。

Michael Leshock, KeyBanc Capital Markets.

KeyBanc 資本市場公司的 Michael Leshock。

I wanted to ask first maybe on the rocket motor. I know you've been testing the propulsion system for the rocket motor. And have there been any changes in the propulsion system for Delta compared to Unity? Do you expect those to have similar thrust, efficiency and burn time?

我想先問一下火箭引擎的問題。我知道你一直在測試火箭引擎的推進系統。與 Unity 相比，Delta 的推進系統有什麼變化嗎？您是否希望它們具有相似的推力、效率和燃燒時間？

Mike, this is Mike Moses. So no changes to the motor itself from what we flew in Unity to what we'll be flying in Delta. As you saw in our presentation today, we did make a little bit of change to the tank, a propellant tank that holds our liquid oxidizer. So it's a slightly new design aimed at giving us lifetime. So basically more uses out of that tank on the order of hundreds of flights.

麥克，我是麥克摩西。因此，與我們在 Unity 中飛行的飛機和在 Delta 中飛行的飛機相比，發動機本身沒有任何變化。正如您在我們今天的演示中看到的，我們確實對儲罐（用於容納液體氧化劑的推進劑儲罐）做了一些改動。所以這是一個稍微新穎的設計，旨在為我們帶來使用壽命。因此，基本上該油箱的用途可以達到數百次飛行的程度。

So that's a change, but we'll be able to check all that out on the ground before we get into flights. So as it relates to the motor itself, similar thrust, similar performance profiles as to what we were doing on Unity.

這是一個變化，但我們可以在飛行前在地面上檢查所有這些。因此，就引擎本身而言，它具有與我們在 Unity 上所做的類似的推力、類似的性能概況。

And then on the first Delta flight being for research payloads, as we think about maybe the first year or two of Delta shifts in commercial service, have you considered having a higher percentage of research flights at that higher margin, at least initially to kind of accelerate your path to positive free cash flow?

然後，關於達美航空首次運送研究有效載荷的航班，當我們考慮達美航空投入商業服務的第一年或第二年時，您是否考慮過在更高的利潤率下增加研究航班的比例，至少在最初階段可以加速實現正自由現金流的進程？

I think we'll do a mix. There's balancing of all the constituencies here. Of course, we will prioritize ensuring the company is in good financial state and ensuring that as we fly our ships, those are driving EBITDA positive operations for us. We can do that and bring in a substantial percentage of those flights for customers that have been in the queue for a while, even though that they are -- they've been in earlier -- at earlier price points, which are much less. They've all been waiting super patiently, and it's time for us to fly them to space.

我想我們會做一個混合。這裡需要平衡所有選區。當然，我們將優先確保公司財務狀況良好，並確保我們的飛機在運作時能夠為我們的 EBITDA 帶來積極的營運。我們可以做到這一點，並為排隊等候一段時間的乘客提供相當大比例的航班，即使他們排隊的時間更早，而且價格也更低。他們都非常耐心地等待著，現在是我們將他們送入太空的時候了。

So we'll be doing both. What's really important to know, especially for our astronauts who've been waiting so long, but for everyone, the capacities that we have with these Delta ships enable -- we've put out -- we believe, with a conservative estimate, 125 flights a year at six people per ship on those flights, we'll be able to move through our existing backlog of people fairly quickly.

所以我們會同時做這兩件事。真正重要的是要知道，特別是對於等待已久的太空人來說，但對於每個人來說，我們達美航空飛船的容量——我們已經推出——我們相信，保守估計，每年 125 次飛行，每艘飛船搭載 6 人，我們將能夠相當快地處理掉我們現有的積壓人員。

So we can bring in a high percentage of research flights, as you mentioned, probably higher rates than some of our early pieces and also bring in our existing astronaut base and fly them quite quickly. So I think the capacity will give us the chance to do both and then we scale from there.

因此，正如您所說，我們可以引入高比例的研究飛行，可能比我們早期的一些飛行頻率更高，同時還可以引入我們現有的太空人基地並使其快速飛行。所以我認為產能將使我們有機會同時做到這兩點，然後我們從那裡開始擴大規模。

Okay. And then lastly for me on the Redwire announcement, it was good to see that. How do you see the commercial research market evolving over the longer term? Maybe you could talk a bit about that agreement that you have. And just wondering if you see more opportunities for similar contracts going forward or if you've maybe thought about the size of what that addressable market might be?

好的。最後，對我來說，很高興看到 Redwire 的公告。您如何看待商業研究市場的長期發展？也許你們可以談談您們達成的協議。我只是想知道您是否看到未來有更多類似合約的機會，或者您是否考慮過這個潛在市場的規模？

It's nice having Mike Moses on this call, you and I look at each other and like, hey, okay, you're from NASA in your past, why don't you take that one, and I'll pick up on it. So go ahead, Mike.

很高興麥克摩西能接聽這個電話，我們互相看著對方，然後說，嘿，好吧，你以前在 NASA 工作過，為什麼不接這個電話呢，我會接聽的。那麼繼續吧，麥克。

Sure thing. Yes, the agreement with the Redwire is fantastic, and I think it highlights not only what we're doing here at Virgin Galactic, but what you see in the commercial spaceflight industry in general, which is a real surge in the commercialization opportunities that spaceflight offers.

當然可以。是的，與 Redwire 達成的協議非常棒，我認為它不僅凸顯了我們在維珍銀河所做的事情，也凸顯了整個商業航太產業的情況，即航太提供的商業化機會真正激增。

Our platform, while maybe not unique in its capability, certainly offers a unique way to tackle what I would call a really fun and kind of game-changing thing where researchers can fly with their science, right? So in most other scientific fields, you design an experiment, you go into a lab, you do it yourself, you get your results. But in spaceflight, you hand that over to a professional astronaut who's up on the space station and they execute the science for you.

我們的平台雖然在功能上可能不是獨一無二的，但確實提供了一種獨特的方式來解決我所說的真正有趣和改變遊戲規則的事情，研究人員可以帶著他們的科學飛翔，對嗎？因此，在大多數其他科學領域，你設計一個實驗，進入實驗室，自己做，然後得到結果。但在太空飛行中，你將其交給太空站上的專業太空人，他們會為你執行科學任務。

So the human-tended research opportunities, I think, are immense in spaceflight. The commercial suborbital market offers a chance to fly very frequently, rapid re-flight of your payload in your research, you can tune it. It doesn't have to be -- it can be less cost because it doesn't have to be highly automated and live on a space station for years at a time. So I think that's going to be groundbreaking in what we can do.

因此，我認為，人類在太空飛行領域所進行的研究機會是巨大的。商業亞軌道市場提供了非常頻繁的飛行機會，您可以在研究中快速重新飛行您的有效載荷，並對其進行調整。並非必須如此——它可以成本更低，因為它不需要高度自動化，也不需要一次在太空站上運行數年。所以我認為，這將是我們所能做的具有開創性的事情。

So I do think there's a big appeal to the research market. The Redwire contract specifically really kind of advances the technology application that we'll be applying. So the science, the meat of that agreement, right, is a smart locker that has power, has data, has communications with the payloads and the ship and allows the researcher to have access to much more capability in the back of our spaceship.

所以我確實認為這對研究市場有很大的吸引力。Redwire 合約確實推動了我們將要應用的技術應用。因此，該協議的科學核心是一個智慧儲物櫃，它有電力、有數據，可以與有效載荷和太空船進行通信，並允許研究人員在我們的太空船後部使用更多的功能。

And it's Michael. I believe I've shared this before, but as we watch the government, especially, really push both to the Moon and to Mars, those will have lots of science and research being able to be leveraged and take advantage of those flights. It's still going to be very expensive to get to the Moon. It's still very -- it's incredibly expensive to get to Mars. And so any research that's going to be on those ships for those longer duration missions wants to be really figured out.

他是麥可。我相信我之前已經分享過這一點，但是當我們看到政府真正推動月球和火星計劃時，將會有大量的科學和研究能夠被利用並充分利用這些飛行。登陸月球的成本仍然非常昂貴。前往火星的費用仍然非常昂貴。因此，對這些用於執行長期任務的飛船進行的任何研究都需要徹底的弄清楚。

And the best way to really figure out is to test and test and trial and trial. And that's where we believe we have an incredible platform to allow people to refine, maybe adapt, toughen or change their research that is planning to go further places. So we provide an excellent step stone into the longer duration missions that research is so important to.

而真正解決問題的最佳方法就是不斷測試、試驗、再試驗。我們相信，我們擁有一個令人難以置信的平台，可以讓人們改進、調整、強化或改變他們計劃走得更遠的研究。因此，我們為長期任務提供了極佳的墊腳石，而研究對於長期任務至關重要。

Myles Walton, Wolfe Research.

邁爾斯·沃爾頓，沃爾夫研究公司。

I was hoping you could touch on the potential augmentation of the mothership for other applications. And I know that your plan is, I think, for 2026 to start on the mothership two. Is there a way, or do you see a path where co-funding is possible to maybe take away some of that burden as you bring on additional mission profiles?

我希望您能談談母艦在其他應用方面的潛在增強。我知道你的計畫是從 2026 年開始啟動二號母艦。有沒有辦法，或者您是否看到了一條可以透過共同資助的途徑，以便在您帶來更多任務概況時減輕一些負擔？

Let me put the question to a bit of context, Myles, and then get to some of the specifics. So we've been consistent sharing our business model growth path. First things first, we need to get our first two ships into Spaceport America get to EBITDA positive operations.

邁爾斯，讓我先把問題放在背景中，然後再談一些具體細節。因此，我們一直在分享我們的商業模式成長路徑。首先，我們需要讓前兩艘太空船進入美國太空港，實現 EBITDA 正運作。

Next thing we do, as Doug even alluded to in one of his pages today, add two more spaceships and another spaceship launch vehicle into New Mexico so that we fundamentally build out that first spaceport and we get all sorts of leverage on the fixed cost side to drive great exponential growth.

接下來我們要做的事情，正如道格今天在他的其中一頁中提到的那樣，向新墨西哥州增加兩艘太空船和另一艘太空船運載火箭，這樣我們就從根本上建成了第一個太空港，並且在固定成本方面獲得各種槓桿來推動巨大的指數增長。

That's Phase 1, a fully functioning spaceport in New Mexico. Phase 2 is to take that operation and replicate it in other parts of the world. As we've shared, we've had great progress moving with the Italians and looking at a potential Air Force base in the Puglia region of Italy. That is one of several places we could go, but a very, very exciting one, and we're making good progress with them.

這是第一階段，位於新墨西哥州的一個功能齊全的太空港。第二階段是將該行動複製到世界其他地區。正如我們所分享的，我們在與義大利人的合作以及在義大利普利亞地區尋找潛在空軍基地方面取得了很大進展。這是我們可以去的幾個地方之一，但卻非常非常令人興奮，而且我們正在取得良好的進展。

So to take the model that we've effectively built and as we're now talking all of these tools that we showed all the pictures of today, those are the same tools that will build spaceships for a spaceport in Italy, right? We've already built them. The design is already done. So it's quite effective for us to then add incremental shifts.

因此，就我們有效建造的模型而言，正如我們現在討論的，我們今天展示的所有圖片中的所有這些工具，都是為義大利的太空港建造太空船的工具，對嗎？我們已經建好了它們。設計已經完成。因此，對我們來說，增加增量轉變是非常有效的。

And so Phase 2 of our business plan is to go to second spaceports. And so then, there's like, okay, well, what's next? And there are many things that could be what's next. Obviously, we need -- we've been using the word mothership internally. A lot of people don't understand it.

因此，我們商業計劃的第二階段是建造第二個太空港。那麼，好吧，接下來呢？接下來可能會發生很多事情。顯然，我們需要——我們一直在內部使用「母艦」這個詞。很多人不理解這一點。

So just to make it clear, we're calling it a spaceship launch vehicle. Eve is our first one. And as we've been working on the -- not just the beginning design phases, we're reasonably through our conceptual design, moving towards solid preliminary design doing the trade-offs we need to do there.

為了清楚起見，我們稱之為太空船運載火箭。夏娃是我們的第一個。而且，我們一直在努力——不僅僅是在開始的設計階段，我們還在合理地完成概念設計，朝著堅實的初步設計邁進，並在那裡進行我們需要的權衡。

And we brought in outside experts to help us in that regard. We all pull back into what we've known for a decade, Eve and any derivative of Eve is hugely powerful in its ability to carry heavy weight to high altitude, and we talked about that on the call. So Myles, now specifically to your question, we put in an image there. Obviously, these carrier ships, these spaceship launch vehicles can carry spaceships, but if you can carry something that heavy to the height we do, you could also carry a pod that can do other things. And there are a lot of efforts there.

我們聘請了外部專家來幫助我們解決這個問題。我們都回顧了十年來所了解的事物，Eve 和 Eve 的任何衍生產品都具有強大的能力，可以將重物運送到高海拔地區，我們在電話會議上討論了這一點。那麼 Myles，現在具體回答你的問題，我們在那裡放了一張圖片。顯然，這些運載飛船，這些太空船運載火箭可以運載太空船，但如果你能把那麼重的東西運載到我們能達到的高度，那麼你也可以運載一個可以做其他事情的吊艙。那裡有很多努力。

You're aware, Myles. There can be ISR, for those who don't know the acronym, intelligence surveillance reconnaissance missions. There's testing missions that go along with that. There's a lot going on in the U.S. right now, as I'm sure you're aware, that could use something that could carry heavy payloads to high altitudes.

你知道的，邁爾斯。可以有 ISR，對於不知道這個縮寫的人來說，就是情報監視偵察任務。還有伴隨此任務的測試任務。我相信您已經意識到，目前美國正在發生很多事情，這些事情可能需要能夠將重型有效載荷運送到高海拔的物體。

Our derivative would need to have further range, getting to the long endurance part of HALE. And we understand how we would modify the existing Eve ship to enable that. So specifically to your question, is there opportunity for people to partner with us and will we look for people who might want to partner with us? I think that's a super smart opportunity for us and one that we are actively paying attention to because we think this is a real potential for the government. With that said, first things first.

我們的衍生產品需要有更大的射程，達到 HALE 的長航時部分。我們知道如何修改現有的 Eve 飛船來實現這一點。所以具體到您的問題，人們是否有機會與我們合作，我們是否會尋找可能願意與我們合作的人？我認為這對我們來說是一個非常明智的機會，我們正在積極關注，因為我們認為這對政府來說是一個真正的潛力。話雖如此，但首先要做的事情是。

We have to keep ourselves laser-focused on getting to the first of these two ships out and then the second one right behind it, so we get to EBITDA cash flow operations. So we are staying almost entirely on that. But the small group, the Tiger team we have against these carrier ship platforms as we grow absolutely is looking into how we could partner with other people largely in -- who do more military support for the government and seeing if there's an opportunity to partner for good for everyone.

我們必須全神貫注地讓第一艘船出海，然後緊接著讓第二艘船出海，這樣我們就能實現 EBITDA 現金流運作。所以我們幾乎完全堅持這一點。但是，隨著我們的發展，我們專門組建的針對這些航空母艦平台的「虎」式小組正在研究如何與其他人合作，這些人主要是為政府提供更多的軍事支持，看看是否有機會建立對每個人都有利的合作夥伴關係。

Okay. No, that's crystal clear, Michael. And then, Doug, I think I heard you right, just correct me if I'm wrong. Did you say that 2025 cash consumption would be below the $475 million in 2024? And then I think on the last call, you were looking for 2025 first quarter to potentially tick up in cash flow consumption, which doesn't look like it's happening.

好的。不，這非常清楚，邁克爾。然後，道格，我想我聽對了，如果我錯了，請糾正我。您是否說過 2025 年的現金消耗量將低於 2024 年的 4.75 億美元？然後我認為在上次通話中，您預計 2025 年第一季的現金流消耗可能會增加，但這似乎並沒有發生。

Has there been sort of resequencing of cash profiles since the last call for the better?

自從上次通話以來，現金狀況是否有某種形式的重新排序？

No. There's been no real changes other than we talked about a peak in Q1. I think that peak is a little lower than we projected. So then the trend down for the year will continue and exiting, we had talked about exiting below $100 million spend by the fourth quarter. So yes, definitely lower spend in 2025 than 2024.

不。除了我們談到第一季的高峰之外，沒有發生任何真正的變化。我認為高峰比我們預測的要低一點。因此，今年的下降趨勢將會持續下去，我們曾討論到第四季支出將低於 1 億美元。所以是的，2025 年的支出肯定比 2024 年低。

Oliver Chen. (Operator Instructions)

奧利佛陳。（操作員指示）

It's Tom Nass on for Oliver. I wanted to ask a follow-up on the previous free cash flow question. Between now and summer of 2026 or fall of 2026, how should we expect the trajectory of free cash flow to ramp to positivity over time?

湯姆·納斯 (Tom Nass) 取代奧利佛 (Oliver)。我想就之前的自由現金流問題進行後續詢問。從現在到 2026 年夏季或秋季，我們應該如何預期自由現金流的軌跡會隨著時間的推移逐漸轉為正值？

Okay. This is Doug. Thanks for the question, Tom. So yes, to expand on this, I think it's important to get some perspective of where we're at. We're in a really good position right now with our balance sheet.

好的。這是道格。謝謝你的提問，湯姆。所以是的，為了進一步闡述這一點，我認為了解我們所處的位置是很重要的。我們的資產負債表目前處於非常良好的狀態。

And we had been in the process earlier of building up cash that prepared us to convert that cash into assets now. That's in the form of manufacturing capacity, tooling, and now our first two spaceships. And I mentioned on the earlier remarks, you can see this in our book value, right? It's now over $200 million in the property, plant and equipment, and that will continue to grow substantially. So now you're going to see spending going down through 2024 and then in -- excuse me, 2025 and then going into 2026, because that investment in that capital will be behind us, and we're just moving towards commercial operations.

我們之前一直在累積現金，為現在將這些現金轉換為資產做好準備。這是以製造能力、工具以及現在我們的前兩艘太空船的形式出現的。我之前提到過，您可以從我們的帳面價值中看到這一點，對嗎？目前，其財產、廠房和設備價值已超過 2 億美元，而且還將繼續大幅成長。所以現在你會看到支出在 2024 年下降，然後在 - 對不起，2025 年，然後到 2026 年，因為對該資本的投資將會落後，我們正走向商業運營。

So the way to think about this is, we enter 2026, we've got some great assets available now. We'll have a couple of spaceships, and we're going to be going into commercial service. And what happens then is now we would start to see cash inflows ahead of the flights. So at this point, when we're entering commercial service and all of that, I mean, to use a football term, we're first in goal, right? We're in a really good position here.

所以思考這個問題的方式是，我們進入 2026 年，我們現在擁有一些優質資產。我們將擁有幾艘太空船，並將投入商業服務。然後發生的事情是，我們將開始看到航班起飛前的現金流入。所以現在，當我們進入商業服務時，用足球術語來說，我們是第一個進球的，對吧？我們目前處於非常有利的地位。

And I think the value of the company becomes really obvious as we hit these milestones and move towards commercial service. So to put it in perspective, we would be trending down through 2025, as I said. And then 2026 is an inflection year because commercial service is in the summer of 2026, and that's when we start to see cash inflows coming in and we become positive around the time of beginning spaceflights.

我認為，當我們實現這些里程碑並邁向商業服務時，公司的價值就會變得非常明顯。因此，從這個角度來看，正如我所說，到 2025 年，我們的趨勢將呈下降趨勢。2026 年是一個轉折年，因為商業服務將在 2026 年夏季開始，那時我們開始看到現金流入，並且在開始太空飛行時我們會變得積極。

Great. And then as a follow-up, I wanted to ask about any potential updates you might have on the customer experience side of the business, especially given the potential progress on the second spaceport in Italy? And then, overall, given the potential for a second spaceport, is there any updates to your existing private astronaut TAM estimate?

偉大的。然後作為後續問題，我想問您在業務的客戶體驗方面可能有什麼更新，特別是考慮到義大利第二個太空港的潛在進展？那麼，總體而言，考慮到第二個太空港的可能性，您對現有的私人太空人 TAM 估計有什麼更新嗎？

I'll take that one, Tom. It's Michael here. One thing, if you watch the top 10 video that Mike Moses put out this morning, it's great. It's quick. It's fun.

我要這個，湯姆。我是麥可。有一件事，如果你看了邁克摩西今天早上發布的十大視頻，你會發現它很棒。很快。很有趣。

One of the things you'll see in there is where we had a group from ENAC, the -- I'll say, the FAA of Italy was at Spaceport America. And one of the things that we've done has been able to adapt our pilot simulator. It can get geographically accurate in the world and look at various flight profiles and ways to go from the base in which we're talking about in Southern Italy. And, boy, you just even look at that video, you can imagine how glorious it is to not just look over the boot of Italy, but all of what you're seeing in Southern Europe there is pretty spectacular. So that's real progress being made against that.

你們會看到，我們有一支來自 ENAC 的團隊，也就是義大利聯邦航空管理局 (FAA)，他們在美國太空港。我們所做的事情之一就是能夠調整我們的飛行員模擬器。它可以獲得世界範圍內的精確地理位置，並查看各種飛行剖面圖以及從我們正在討論的意大利南部基地出發的路線。而且，小伙子，你只要看一下那個視頻，你就可以想像那是多麼的壯麗，不僅可以看到意大利的靴子，而且你還可以欣賞南歐的所有壯麗景色。所以這是在這方面取得的真正進展。

I think I'm looking over to Mike Moses. I think that effort wraps up in 2025, the exploratory effort there. So we'll have some points of view by the end of this year about how we go forward in Italy, but it's a really good partnership and working relationship. You asked the question about TAM. I think you asked it specifically with the notion of an extra Spaceport.

我想我正在看著麥克摩西。我認為這項探索性工作將於 2025 年結束。因此，到今年年底，我們將對如何在義大利取得進展形成一些看法，但這是一種非常好的夥伴關係和工作關係。您問的是有關 TAM 的問題。我認為您問這個問題是專門針對額外太空港的概念。

I think the ability to go to space from everybody that we've taken up and everybody we've heard that has gone to space is so stunning and so impactful that people will really travel to where the opportunity is. If you wanted to climb Everest, you have to go to Everest. So I think people will travel for this, and they clearly are. We have our astronaut bases from all across the world, 60-plus countries. With that said, I think being able to see different parts of the world increases the frequency of repeat visitation on this.

我認為，我們所聽到的每個人進入太空的能力是如此令人震驚和影響深遠，以至於人們會真正前往有機會的地方。如果你想攀登珠穆朗瑪峰，你必須去珠穆朗瑪峰。所以我認為人們會為此而旅行，事實也確實如此。我們的太空人基地遍布世界各地，有 60 多個國家。話雖如此，我認為能夠看到世界的不同部分會增加重複訪問的頻率。

I think it is not a one-and-done experience. And I think being able to have just the visceral experience of going and seeing the earth from space is worth doing multiple times. So when you can see different parts of the planet, I think that becomes an opportunity to not just go again, but then if you're going again, bringing other people. So that's one way, I'll call it, the individuals don't change, but the number of times an individual goes to space probably does. And I also think there's just something natural to having deeper penetration of a market when you're kind of around your home base.

我認為這不是一次性的經驗。我認為，能夠親身體驗從太空看地球的感受，值得多次嘗試。因此，當你能夠看到地球的不同部分時，我認為這不僅會成為一個再次前往的機會，而且如果你再次前往，還可以帶其他人一起去。所以，我稱之為一種方式，個體不會改變，但個體進入太空的次數可能會改變。而且我還認為，當你在自己的大本營附近時，更深入滲透市場是很自然的事。

And so I would imagine we'll see deeper penetration from Europe. If we have a spaceport in Italy, we'll see deeper penetration from Southeast Asia if we have a spaceport in Southeast Asia. Same thing in the Middle East. So we're excited to be over multiple places. But again, right now, we're just focused on New Mexico and bringing that spaceport up to full capacity.

因此我想我們將會看到來自歐洲的更深層的滲透。如果我們在義大利有一個太空港，我們將看到來自東南亞的更深層的滲透。中東也發生同樣的事情。因此我們很高興能去多個地方。但現在，我們只關注新墨西哥州，並讓該太空港達到滿載運轉。

That concludes our question-and-answer session. Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

我們的問答環節到此結束。女士們、先生們，今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝大家的加入。您現在可以斷開連線。