Branson’s Virgin Orbit to pull small team out of near-full suspension By Reuters

By Joey Roulette

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit plans to remove a small group of employees on Thursday from near-full leave from the company to work on rocket upgrades, an email to staff said, and the company confirmed some members of the team would return.

The number of employees required to return to work at the cash-strapped company was unclear, but in the email seen by Reuters sent late Tuesday, Virgin Orbit chief executive Dan Hart said it involved a “small subset” of employees.

The furlough of nearly all of Virgin Orbit’s 750 employees began on March 16, after the company struggled in recent months to raise funds and suffered a high-profile rocket failure in January during its first launch attempt outside Great Britain. Brittany.

The move, in which only employees critical to company functions would remain, was intended to give Virgin Orbit more time to finalize an investment plan and avoid bankruptcy.

The small group of employees who were asked to return to work had been notified directly by their managers, according to a person familiar with the plan, while those who were not asked to return to work would have their leave extended until on Monday, Hart said in the email.

Discussions over Virgin Orbit’s investment plan to avoid bankruptcy were ongoing, a second person familiar with the process said. The people spoke anonymously to discuss internal company matters.

Hart said in the email that “multiple teams have been working around the clock as we continue to engage with investors and other stakeholders.”

A Virgin Orbit spokesperson said in a statement that the company was targeting an “incremental resumption” of operations to support its upcoming launch.

“Our first step will begin on Thursday of this week, when we plan to return a subset of our team to focus on critical areas for our next mission,” the company said.

Virgin Orbit shares fell to a new all-time low of $0.44 on Tuesday.