Virgin Orbit’s days of launching satellites into space aboard rockets launched from planes came to an end on Thursday. After six years in business, Virgin’s satellite launch subsidiary announced via SEC filing that it does not have the funds to continue operations and will shut down for “the foreseeable future,” according to . Nearly 90 percent of Virgin Orbit employees, 675 people in total, will be made redundant immediately.
Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 with the purpose of developing and commercializing a satellite launch system installed on a modified 747 aircraft, dubbed Cosmic Girl. The system was designed to put 500-pound cubesats into low-Earth orbit by firing them on a rocket from said aircraft flying at an altitude of 30,000 to 50,000 feet. Despite a number of initial successes, both in terms of the first official test of LauncherOne in May 2020.
According to telemetry, LauncherOne has reached orbit! Everyone on the team who isn’t in mission control right now is going absolutely nuts. Even the communications people try very hard not to sound too excited.
— Virgin Orbit (@VirginOrbit) January 17, 2021
However, a second attempt in January 2022 was successful, as was Virgin Orbit’s first commercial satellite launch in June. It successfully sent seven more satellites into orbit in January 2022 and .
In all, Virgin Orbit made six flights in total between 2020 and 2023, only four successful. The most recent attempt was called I start event and was supposed to mark the first commercial space launch from British soil. Despite the rocket successfully separating from its parent aircraft, an upper stage “anomaly” prevented the rocket payload from entering orbit. It was later determined that and failure resulted.
As TechCrunch notes, Virgin Group founder Sir Richard Branson has “thrown more than $55 million at the sinking space company” in recent months, but Start Me Up’s embarrassing failure turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. On March 16, Virgin Orbit announced a “” and furlough for its approximately 750 employees as company leaders scrambled to find new sources of funding. The company two weeks later and withdrew on Thursday.
“Unfortunately, we have not been able to secure the funding to provide a clear path for this venture,” Virgin CEO Dan Hart said in a blanket call obtained by . “We have no choice but to implement immediate, dramatic and extremely painful changes.”
The affected employees will reportedly receive severance packages, according to Hart, which include a cash payment, continued benefits and a “hotline” to Virgin Galactic’s hiring department. Virgin Orbit’s two top executives will also receive “golden parachute” severance payments that were approved by the company’s board, conveniently, in mid-March, just as the licenses first went into effect.
