Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy and starts looking for a buyer

Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy, the company announced. The space company hopes to find a buyer. Virgin Orbit recently announced that it would lay off most of its staff after a failed financing round.

Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy in the form of a so-called Chapter 11 procedure. With such a procedure, the company draws up a plan to recover as many funds as possible from creditors. Virgin Orbit indicates that it is looking for a buyer who wants to take over the company and hopes to complete the sale as soon as possible. The company will receive $ 31.6 million from Virgin Investments in the meantime. This should provide Virgin Orbit with “the necessary liquidity” to continue its activities, allowing the company to continue the sales process that had started earlier.

There have been reports of financial problems at Virgin Orbit for some time. The company paused operations for at least a week in mid-March and then said it would look for funding. At the time, the space company was unable to raise sufficient investments. The company said March 31 it would cut 85 percent of its jobs and “temporarily cease” operations.

Virgin Orbit launches rockets from a modified Boeing 747 to launch small satellites into low Earth orbit. In January, the company wanted to launch satellites from Western Europe for the first time in this way. This had previously worked well in missions in the United States, but on the European flight, the first upper stage ignition was terminated early. The nine satellites were lost in the process.