Virgin Orbit is on the brink of collapse just months after a failed bid to launch a satellite into space from Cornwall.
The rocket firm set up by Sir Richard Branson has laid off 85 per cent of its workforce and ceased operations after failing to secure a cash lifeline.
Virgin Orbit said it made the decision ‘in order to reduce expenses in light of the company’s inability to secure meaningful funding’. The cuts will hit around 675 employees and leave just 100 staff.
Failure: Cosmic Girl and Launcher One. Right: Richard Branson
Branson has injected around £8.8m through his firm Virgin Investments to cover most of the severance pay and other costs related to the culling. Virgin Orbit, which was founded in 2017, has not turned a profit since it became a public company.
Reports suggest the firm will cease operations for the foreseeable future until it gets its finances into order.
The New-York listed company has been on the edge of bankruptcy after its failed launch from Cornwall in January. The Virgin Orbit plane – a re-configured Boeing 747 named Cosmic Girl – took off from Newquay with Launcher One under its wing. But a glitch prevented the rocket carrying the satellites reaching orbit after it was launched from the aircraft.
William Whitehorn, the former president of Virgin Galatic, from which Virgin Orbit was spun, said: ‘Space tech is suffering from a much bigger issue in the tech sector and the wider fear of private equity at the moment.’
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