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MISSION FAILED

Richard Branson’s Space X Rival Virgin Orbit Files for Bankruptcy

It comes after the satellite launch company announced it was cutting 85 percent of its staff.

A replica model of Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket sits in a media area at Newquay Airport in Newquay, Britain, Jan. 8, 2023.

Henry Nicholls/Reuters

By Dan Ladden-Hall

Virgin Orbit, the space company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. after last-ditch attempts to secure funding to keep the venture alive fell apart. Last week, the California-based company announced it was cutting 675 staff—around 85 percent of its payroll—citing an “inability to secure meaningful funding.” That setback also followed a botched satellite launch in January that was hoped to have been the first time a satellite was sent into orbit from U.K. soil. Virgin Orbit was founded in 2017 as a spinoff from Branson’s space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, and was once heralded as a serious rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

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