Money is gone and after the failed launch nobody wants to invest anymore
In the music business, Richard Branson actually stringed success stories together with Virgin. This also applied to the airline of the same name that he founded. With those two companies he earned so much money that he could afford some expensive hobbies. Unfortunately, not all of them turned out to be equally successful. His attempts to circumnavigate the earth solo in a hot air balloon did not all go smoothly. And also with its space companies, Virgin Galactic and its spin-off Virgin Orbithe had to deal with quite a few setbacks.
Virgin Orbit shuts down
The curtain now seems to have finally fallen for one of the companies. Today it was announced that Virgin Orbit is ceasing all its activities. The lion’s share of the staff, about 85 percent (675 people) has already been laid off. Those who remain are tasked with scaling down the remaining activities of the company and ‘closing the door’.
Virgin Orbit hadn’t been doing well for some time. The proverbial last nail in the coffin was the failed launch of a rocket in January. It had to be launched from a great height into orbit around the earth, carried under the ‘belly’ of a Boeing 747. Everything went according to plan until the first and second stage were disconnected from the rocket and the LauncherOne ‘raced’ to its orbit around the earth at more than 33,000 kilometers per hour. Shortly afterwards, before he reached his final destination, things went wrong.
Investors are dropping out
That failure now seems to have even greater consequences. Even before the launch, Virgin Orbit was already looking for new investors who wanted to put money into the company so that the activities could continue. Now that the company has failed to put a rocket into orbit around the earth – its primary objective – the (new) investors are pulling out.
For Virgin Galactic, the parent company, the termination of Virgin Orbit has no consequences for the time being. Not everything is going smoothly there, though. In fact, the continued existence of that space company is also far from certain. Blunders, an investigation by the FAA after (hidden) errors during test flights and investors who are agitated do not make it any easier for Branson. Undoubtedly to be continued!
