Virgin Galactic and Boeing settle lawsuit over stolen trade secrets

Boeing (NYSE:BA)and Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) have settled dueling lawsuits that date back to work on Virgin Galactic’s mothership jet carrier, according to a filing in a Virginia federal court.

Virgin Galactic (SPCE) and Boeing (BA) confirmed the case was satisfactorily resolved by a mutual agreement of the parties, without providing details on the arrangement.

The original lawsuit from Boeing (BA) alleged that Virgin Galactic (SPCE) did not pay $25 million owed for work, and took proprietary information such as test data and math equations. Virgin Galactic (SPCE) countersued in April, claiming Boeing performed shoddy and incomplete work on the aircraft. That lawsuit was already dismissed.

Virgin Galactic (SPCE) completed its last flight in June and does not plan to return revenue-generating passengers to the sky until around 2026, when the first new Delta-class spaceship is expected to come online. Morgan Stanley analyst Kristine Liwag noted last month that while incremental visibility into the longer-term business plan is encouraging, successful production of the first two Delta ships and their ability to sustain high-frequency flights must first be proven to realize SPCE’s initial fleet economics of around $450 million of annual revenue at 20% to 25% margins.

Shares of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) are down 88% on a year-to-date basis.