SPACs are the future, but you have to be smart about investing in them July 26, 2021 By Luke Lango, InvestorPlace Senior Investment Analyst Jul 26, 2021, 4:56 pm EDT July 26, 2021 It was in that month that space tourism pioneer Virgin Galactic (NYSE: But the shocker came when Virgin announced that it would not be going public through a traditional IPO process. Rather, the Richard Branson-backed company said it was going public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company — or SPAC, for short — backed by former Facebook exec and billionaire venture capital investor Chamath Palihapitiya. At the time, investors raised their eyebrows at the news, but didn’t make much of it…