What happened Shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE) dropped more than 10% at the open after the space tourism company reported weaker-than-expected results and warned of potential further delays to its testing schedule. So what Investors knew going into earnings season that Virgin Galactic was bound to report a loss, but the company's first-quarter results came in worse than expected. Virgin Galactic lost $0.55 per share in the quarter on zero revenue, missing analyst expectations for a $0.27-PER-SHARE loss on revenue of $330,000. Virgin Galactic's United spacecraft with its transport plane. Image source: Virgin Galactic. The company had originally hoped to be flying tourists into space by now, but a combination of pandemic-related complications and testing setbacks has pushed the target date to later this year at the earliest. It could easily fall into 2022, as Virgin Galactic warned it is evaluating the timing of its next test flight. The company had previously hoped to conduct that test this month. Virgin Galactic said it discovered fatigue and stress on the massive aircraft used to get its spacecraft airborne. During the post-earnings call, Mike Moses, president of space missions and safety, said the company hopes to update the test schedule next week. Now what The good news is Virgin Galactic's quarterly net loss of $130 million was an improvement over the $337 million net loss in the first quarter of 2020. The company still has more than $600 million in cash to help guide it through the testing phase. But the fundamental question of whether or not Virgin Galactic's plan to get tourists into space will work is still unanswered, and competition is coming. Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin earlier this month opened up ticket sales for its rival service. Virgin Galactic shares have lost nearly 70% of their value over the past three months, but the company is still valued by the market at more than $4 billion. If Virgin Galactic can get airborne and iron out the kinks this could still end up being the high-flying growth stock that bulls have hoped it will be, but given the uncertainty and the risks this stock is best left as a small part of a well-diversified portfolio. 10 stocks we like better than Virgin Galactic Holdings IncWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of May 11, 2021 Lou Whiteman has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source