Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit was a company within the Virgin Group that provided launch services for small satellites. The company was formed in 2017 as a spin-off of Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture to develop and market the LauncherOne rocket, which had previously been a project under Virgin Galactic. LauncherOne was a two-stage launch vehicle, air-launched from a Boeing 747 carrier aircraft, designed to deliver 300 kg of payload to low Earth orbit.
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| OTC Pink: VORBQ | |
| Industry | Aerospace |
| Predecessor | Virgin Galactic |
| Founded | March 2, 2017 |
| Defunct | May 22, 2023 |
| Fate | Chapter 11 bankruptcy |
| Headquarters | , United States |
Key people | Dan Hart (President and CEO) Brita O'rear (CFO) |
| Products | LauncherOne |
| Services | Orbital rocket launch |
| Total equity |
|
| Owners | |
Number of employees | 100 (2023) |
| Website | virginorbit |
On December 30, 2021, Virgin Orbit underwent a SPAC merger with NextGen Acquisition Corp, and became a publicly traded company (symbol VORB) at the NASDAQ stock exchange. Upon listing Virgin Orbit was valued at $3.7 billion.
LauncherOne made six flights from 2020 to 2023, resulting in four successes and two failures. After the second failure in January 2023 and amid an inability to secure additional financing, the company laid off staff and suspended operations in March 2023, finalizing Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction on May 22, 2023. Remaining assets were divested for $36 million, less than 1% of the company's valuation upon IPO.