Virgin Orbit pauses operations for a week to conduct a search for cash
By Editor - Thu Mar 16, 10:10 am
Virgin Orbit is halting all operations for a week to save money while it “conducts discussions with potential funding sources and explores strategic opportunities,” the company announced in an SEC filing. The company has been struggling financially and a recent launch failure clearly exacerbated those issues. The January launch was accompanied by much fanfare, as it was very possibly the start of a new British space economy with Virgin Orbit in pole position. But the rocket, launched via the company’s signature custom plane method, failed to reach orbit, as we now know due to a single faulty fuel filter the effects of which cascaded through the system and caused the abort. This high-profile failure came at a time when the company was already on shaky ground financially . It has largely been funded by its parent company Virgin for the long and expensive development and testing period, and more recently by private capital and Virgin’s billionaire founder Richard Branson. The big British launch was to be the beginning of something new for the company. But it’s expensive to run a full-service orbital launch company, and when an anomaly occurs it leads to costly refits and testing, and the delay of profitable operations
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Virgin Orbit pauses operations for a week to conduct a search for cash