Dan Hart[1] (President and CEO) Brita O'rear (CFO)
Products
LauncherOne
Services
Orbital rocket launch
Total equity
US$47m (2023)
US$4b (2021)
Owners
Virgin Group
Mubadala
Number of employees
100 (2023)
Website
virginorbit.com
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.[2]
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.[3] Upon listing Virgin Orbit was valued at $3.7 billion.[4]
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,[5] the company laid off staff and suspended operations in March 2023, finalizing Chapter 11 bankruptcy auction on May 22, 2023.[6][7] Remaining assets were divested for $36 million, less than 1% of the company's valuation upon IPO.[8]
^Fernholz, Tim (June 13, 2017). "Virgin Orbit's newly-minted CEO will use psychology to launch satellites faster than anyone else". Quartz. Retrieved June 13, 2017.
^"Virgin Orbit lands in Times Square NYC to ring NASDAQ bell". Space.com. January 7, 2022.
^"Branson's Virgin Orbit to go public through a SPAC at $3.7 billion valuation". CNBC. August 23, 2021.
^Will, Luke (January 10, 2023). "Virgin Orbit's Launcher One Fails to Reach Orbit". Travel Radar. Retrieved January 10, 2023.
^Roulette, Joey (April 4, 2023). "Branson's Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy". Reuters. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
^Race, Michael (April 4, 2023). "Virgin Orbit: Richard Branson's rocket firm files for bankruptcy". BBC News. Retrieved April 4, 2023.
^Sheetz, Michael (May 23, 2023). "Virgin Orbit sells assets in bankruptcy auction to Rocket Lab, Stratolaunch and Vast's Launcher". CNBC. Retrieved May 23, 2023.
VirginOrbit 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...
LauncherOne was a two-stage orbital launch vehicle developed and flown by VirginOrbit that had operational flights from 2021 to 2023, after being in development...
separate company, VirginOrbit, in 2017. The company also has aspirations for suborbital transport and in 2017, Branson has said that Virgin Galactic was "in...
2023. "VirginOrbit: Richard Branson's rocket firm files for bankruptcy". BBC News. 4 April 2023. Sheetz, Michael (30 March 2023). "VirginOrbit fails...
to Bank of Queensland Virgin Money US: sold in 2010 Virgin One account: shareholding sold to co-owner (RBS) in 2003 VirginOrbit: aerospace - declared...
Branson's Virgin Group (through Virgin Galactic and the now cancelled VirginOrbit), which seeks to dominate space tourism, low-cost small orbital launch...
the smallsat orbital launch vehicle, the LauncherOne. In 2017, the aircraft was transferred to the orbital launch subsidiary, VirginOrbit, and its livery...
satellites that have unique orbital and launch-timing requirements. In July 2012, VirginOrbit announced LauncherOne, an orbital launch vehicle designed to...
Union de Transports Aériens ♠ United Airlines ♠ VARIG Virgin Atlantic ♠ Virgin Galactic VirginOrbit Air China ♠ Atlas Air AirBridgeCargo Airlines ♠ Cargolux...
Sun (sold and merged into Air 2000) Virgin Group Virgin Galactic VirginOrbitVirgin Balloon Flights This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct...
the West to do business with the Saudi Government." On 1 December 2020 VirginOrbit launched The Patti Grace Smith Fellowship, designed to offer paid work...
Sun-synchronous orbit on November 7, 2020, becoming the second Chinese private company capable of launching satellites into orbit. United States VirginOrbit successfully...
President of Special Projects at VirginOrbit. He was part of the team that created VirginOrbit while working at Virgin Galactic. He is the co-founder...
A medium Earth orbit (MEO) is an Earth-centered orbit with an altitude above a low Earth orbit (LEO) and below a high Earth orbit (HEO) – between 2,000...
the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center. She works with Virgin Galactic and VirginOrbit, and was the latter's pilot in command for their first rocket...
"VirginOrbit sends 7 satellites to orbit in fourth mid-air launch". Space.com. Retrieved 22 January 2022. Graham, William (2023-01-09). "VirginOrbit...
airport is classified as hub/first class airport. In 2021 the now defunct VirginOrbit announced plans to use Oita Airport for its launch site. At 14:10 on...
By example, two NASA-sponsored CubeSats launched in June 2022 on a VirginOrbit LauncherOne vehicle as the ELaNa 39 mission. Cubes in Space. NASA started...
Operations included an orbital workshop, a solar observatory, Earth observation and hundreds of experiments. Skylab's orbit eventually decayed and it...
Virgin Galactic Unity 22 was a sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity which launched on 11 July 2021. The crew consisted of pilots...
to be returned to service on-orbit. ForgeStar-0 was to be the first Welsh-built satellite and was launched by VirginOrbit on its inaugural mission from...
Galactic 06 was a crewed sub-orbital spaceflight of the SpaceShipTwo-class VSS Unity, which launched on 26 January 2024. It was the sixth commercial spaceflight...
(under development) Rocket Lab: Electron Firefly Aerospace: Firefly Alpha VirginOrbit: LauncherOne By 1845, Michael Faraday had managed to liquefy most gases...
Mars"". CBS News. 18 September 2012. Henry, Caleb (24 October 2019). "VirginOrbit to add extra rocket stage to LauncherOne for interplanetary missions"...
Virgin Galactic. Galactic 05's crew included three private passengers and three Virgin Galactic employees. Virgin Galactic (2 November 2023). "VIRGIN...
web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) Henry, Caleb (24 October 2019). "VirginOrbit to add extra rocket stage to LauncherOne for interplanetary missions"...
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