The stock opened at $12.01 as shares of Virgin Galactic rose more than 9% 

The company was created from the merger between British billionaire Branson's Virgin Galactic and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya

Branson is racing against Blue Origin, the space business of Amazon.com Inc founder Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk's SpaceX to bring tourists into space 

Hundreds of people, including actor Leonardo DiCaprio and pop star Justin Bieber, have paid or put down deposits to fly on one of Virgin's suborbital flights