Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy in US after last-ditch attempt to find funds

Virgin Orbit, the satellite launch company founded by the billionaire Sir Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after last-ditch efforts to find funding for the struggling space business fell through.

- Jasper Jolly, Kalyeena Makortoff

It comes less than a week after the company announced it was cutting 85% of its workforce, leaving roughly 100 employees to run what was left of the company. The California-based business will seek a buyer for its assets.

The satellite launch company was formed as part of the space tourism business Virgin Galactic, which transported Branson into sub-orbital flight in 2021 nine days ahead of his billionaire rival in the private-sector race to leave Earth’s atmosphere, the Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Virgin Orbit spun out on its own from Galactic in 2017, and in late 2021 rode a wave of investor enthusiasm in a merger with a cash shell that listed its shares on New York’s Nasdaq.

Virgin Orbit used a rocket, named LauncherOne, strapped under the wing of a converted Boeing 747 called Cosmic Girl – a horizontal launch method that differed from most rivals’ vertical launches. Yet it raised less than half the $500m (£400m) it hoped for in the stock market listing, and a historic launch in the UK failed in January.