What happened Bouncing back from Tuesday's sell-off, shares of Virgin Galactic Holdings (NYSE: SPCE) closed 7.8% higher on Wednesday on no particular news. So what And yet, Virgin Galactic had been on an ascending pattern, rising strongly all last week after the company resumed flight test operations with its spaceplanes -- and after company founder Sir Richard Branson made the bold claim that "hundreds of thousands of people" will be flying on his spaceplanes "by the end of this century." With that overarching story supporting the stock, investors today may have begun rethinking their panic over yesterday's news that Virgin Galactic plans to raise $1 billion in new funds, and started wondering why the company wants so much cash -- and what it plans to do with it. Image source: Virgin Galactic. Now what It's well known by this point that Virgin Galactic is not a profitable company -- until it starts booking some passengers on commercial flights, it's not even taking in revenue! With commercial flight operations -- and ticket sales -- still probably at least six months away, therefore, Virgin Galactic obviously needs to find money elsewhere to finish flying its flight test program and begin building the additional spaceplanes it will need to carry "hundreds of thousands" of passengers. Presumably, this is what the money is for: Growing the business so that once commercial flight operations do begin Virgin Galactic will have the planes and infrastructure it needs to fully exploit the opportunity. And if this is the case, then the prospect of Virgin taking on debt and issuing new shares to raise the cash may not seem such a frightening prospect after all. 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 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