Virgin Orbit is one of the numerous companies belonging to the giant conglomerate Virgin Group founded by Richard Branson. The core of Virgin Orbit’s business is, or rather was, launching third-party satellites into Earth orbit.
Reuters: Virgin Orbit suspends operations until further notice
As we learned unofficially, the company suspended all operations on Thursday and sent almost all of its employees on forced leave. Head of the company Dan Hart, in a specially convened meeting, admitted to staff that Virgin Orbit needs time to prepare a new investment plan that will help pull the company out of financial problems, an employee reported to Reuters.
The suspension of operations is intended to be only a temporary solution and will remain in effect until the company resolves its difficulties and is able to resume operations. However, it is not clear how long Virgin Orbit’s outage may last. The company’s bosses only promised that in the middle of next week they would inform employees if, and possibly when, they would be able to return to work.
Virgin Orbit does not officially explain its decision. In a statement to Reuters, it only admitted that it was actually suspending operations for an indefinite period. In reaction to the news, the company’s shares fell more than 30 percent this week. Over the past six months, Virgin Orbit has lost almost 80 percent. its value.
Spectacular disaster of a groundbreaking mission
In January, the company for the first time in history tried to launch satellites into orbit from its home country – Great Britain. However, the mission was a complete failure, and the rocket and its payload fell into the ocean. The company reportedly has almost completed its investigation into the matter and, as Reuters learned, is still working on a suitable modification of the rocket.
Virgin Orbit specialized in launching packages of several or a dozen small satellites into orbit. However, they were not launched in a “traditional” way, but took off under the fairing of the LauncherOne rocket attached to the Cosmic Girl plane – Boeing 747-400 (Jumbo Jet).
Source: Gazeta
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