When Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in April, it was clear the commercial launch provider was in serious trouble. Despite successfully putting four payloads into low Earth orbit, the spin-off of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic space tourism company had struggled to achieve a high enough launch cadence to become profitable, and had recently suffered a highly-publicized failure when their first launch from the UK from the newly-completed Spaceport Cornwall ended in a complete loss of the vehicle.
There was some hope that a buyer would swoop in and save them at the last minute, but now that the bankruptcy auction has spread out the company’s assets among several other players in the commercial launch industry, Virgin Orbital is officially no more. With future launches now off the table, the company’s remaining employees are set to be let go as operations wind down over the coming weeks.
Perhaps the biggest winner is Rocket Lab — for $16 million they secured Virgin Orbit’s primary manufacturing site (including the equipment within), which happens to be less than a mile away from the company’s headquarters in Long Beach, California. Between Rocket Lab’s growing manifest of future launches and the development of their next-generation Neutron rocket, an expansion to their existing facilities at a cut-rate price couldn’t come at a better time.
Stratolaunch Systems, a company which itself has flirted with financial ruin since the 2018 death of founder Paul Allen, purchased Virgin Orbit’s modified Boeing 747 carrier aircraft Cosmic Girl for $17 million. A ..
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