What happened Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) shares, which spiked higher yesterday along with most other space stocks, are retreating today -- down 6.2% in 10:15 a.m. EST trading. Partly, I suspect this is simple profit taking by traders cashing in their windfall profits of yesterday. But there's another reason for Virgin Galactic stock to be falling, too. Blue Origin New Shepard crew capsule descends to Earth under parachutes after successful test flight Jan. 14, 2021. Image source: Blue Origin. So what Virgin Galactic wants to become a space tourism company, you see, but it still has a ways to go before it can call itself that -- at least a couple more test flights with no one but crew aboard, then a test flight carrying company founder Sir Richard Branson to space and back, and then, finally, the ribbon cutting -- the beginning of commercial spaceflight operations for paying customers. Factor in the time required to recover from a failed launch attempt in December, however, then finish the scheduled preliminary flights, and commercial operations probably can't begin before the end of Q1 this year -- maybe not even Q2. And here's the problem: Yesterday, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space company conducted its fourteenth test flight of its New Shepard suborbital space tourism rocket. For the first time ever, the rocket carried a new capsule atop it, equipped with six seats and a test mannequin in what Blue described as its "stable configuration" (meaning there probably won't be any more upgrades needed before commercial operations begin). And in a surprising revelation, CNBC reported that this flight was one of two final test flights before New Shepard begins carrying people aboard. Now what Reporting to its followers on Twitter, Blue Origin described Thursday's test flight as "wholly successful." Now, reports CNBC, we have only to wait for a second test flight to go off six weeks from now, then wait six weeks after that to see "the first crewed flight" of New Shepard. Touchdown of the crew capsule, completing what looks to be a wholly successful mission. https://twitter.com/hashtag/NewShepard?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); — Blue Origin (@blueorigin) https://twitter.com/blueorigin/status/1349770679508414468?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs"); Will this be an actual commercial flight? I rather doubt it, as Blue Origin hasn't begun selling tickets yet, or even announced a ticket price. Most likely this will be a crewed test flight carrying only Blue Origin employees. But it does suggest that by April, Blue Origin will already have caught up to where Virgin Galactic is today and be on the cusp of starting its own commercial operations carrying Blue Origin tourists to space. In short: Even if Virgin Galactic's lead hasn't disappeared entirely, it's certainly shrunk appreciably -- and that's why the stock is down today. 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 November 20, 2020 Rich Smith 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