Virgin Galactic Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: SPCE) shares were trading 10% higher after-hours Wednesday following the announcement by The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that it has closed its mishap investigation into the July 11 Virgin Galactic Unity 22 launch, which deviated from assigned airspace on the descent.

According to the FAA, its requirements regarding the implementation of changes on how Virgin communicates to the FAA during flight operations were met by the company and it can return to flight operations.

Virgin Galactic proposed the following corrective actions:

• Updated calculations to expand the protected airspace for future flights. Designating a larger area will ensure that Virgin Galactic has ample protected airspace for a variety of possible flight trajectories during spaceflight missions.
• Additional steps into the Company’s flight procedures to ensure real-time mission notifications to FAA Air Traffic Control.

"The updates to our airspace and real-time mission notification protocols will strengthen our preparations as we move closer to the commercial launch of our spaceflight experience," Virgin Galactic CEO Michael Colglazier commented.