Virgin Galactic reported its first-quarter earnings after the close on Thursday, and the numbers were a bit better than Wall Street expected. But the stock still slipped in after-hours trading, because in the space tourism business, the real story is always about what's coming next.

The company posted revenue of $227,000, beating the $190,000 consensus estimate. That revenue came from access fees related to future astronauts — essentially, people paying for the right to eventually fly. The loss per share was $0.81, also better than the expected $0.88 loss.

Cash burn remains the big concern. Virgin Galactic used $54 million in operating activities and generated negative free cash flow of $93 million in the quarter. It ended the period with $251 million in total cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities. That's a decent cushion, but the clock is ticking until commercial flights start generating real revenue.

CEO Michael Colglazier tried to keep the focus on progress: "We've delivered the first of our new SpaceShips from our Assembly hangar to our Test-and-Launch hangar, ground testing of that SpaceShip is underway, and we remain on track to commence flight testing in Q3 and spaceflight in Q4 of this year."

For the second quarter, Virgin Galactic expects free cash flow to be between negative $87 million and negative $92 million. But the company says spending will improve sequentially each quarter from here. Colglazier added: "Spending continues to decline quarter by quarter, debt retirements are being made on or ahead of schedule, and cash balances are being maintained at appropriate levels as we work through the final quarters of our pre-revenue phase and prepare for the launch of commercial spaceflight operations."

Investors will get more details during the earnings call at 5 p.m. ET. For now, the market is taking a wait-and-see approach. Shares of Virgin Galactic (SPCE) were down 1.04% in after-hours trading at $2.85.