Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company, founded by Richard Branson has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after failing to raise funds to keep afloat.
This news comes within a week that the company announced it was letting go of 675 employees, about 85% of its workforce, leaving about 100 employees to run what was left of the business. The company is now looking for a company to buy its assets. The company listed about $243 million in assets and $153 million in debts, in its bankruptcy filing
Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson, who is also the founder of the Virgin Group. The idea for Virgin Orbit was born out of a project at Branson’s other space company, Virgin Galactic, which was focused on developing a suborbital spaceplane for space tourism. The team realized that the technology they were developing could also be used to launch small satellites into orbit.
Virgin Orbit’s primary launch vehicle is called LauncherOne, which is a two-stage rocket designed to carry small payloads of up to 500 kilograms into low Earth orbit. Unlike traditional rockets that are launched vertically from a launch pad, LauncherOne is carried aloft by a modified Boeing 747-400 aircraft called Cosmic Girl and released at an altitude of around 10,000 meters.
The fortunes of the company were adversely affected when one of its rockets failed to reach orbit in January 2023. Nine satellites on board were lost.
Subsequently, Virgin Orbit expressed its intention to make another attempt, but funding started to dwindle and the firm’s stock value began to decline.
“While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” the chief executive, Dan Hart, said.
“We believe the cutting-edge launch technology this team has created will have wide appeal to buyers as we continue in the process to sell the company. At this stage, we believe the Chapter 11 process represents the best path forward to identify and finalise an efficient and value-maximising sale.”
At its highest point, Virgin Orbit, which merged with a blank check firm to become a publicly traded company towards the end of 2021, had a market capitalization of approximately $3.5 billion.
