The Rise and Fall of Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit executives were in New York celebrating its public stock debut. Recently, it has filed for bankruptcy protection in the US after last-ditch efforts to find funding. This came less than a week after the company announced it was laying off 85% of its workforce, leaving only about 100 employees to run the remaining operations while it looks for a deep-pocketed buyer. This process allows the business to keep operating and resolving its financial issues while protecting creditors owed money.

The satellite launch company was formed as part of space tourism business Virgin Galactic, which transported Richard Branson into sub-orbital flight in 2021 nine days ahead of his billionaire rival, Jeff Bezos.Virgin Orbit was spun off from Virgin Galactic in 2017 to focus on satellite launches rather than human launches. The company launches satellites into orbit with rockets launched from the Cosmic Girl, a modified Boeing 747 plane that flies the LauncherOne rocket up to altitude before releasing it for its astral accent, and in late 2021 rode a wave of investor enthusiasm into a merger with a cash shell that listed its shares on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange.

It became one of only a few US rocket companies to successfully launch a privately developed launch vehicle into orbit. Since 2020, it has launched six missions, with four successes and two failures, using an ambitious and technically difficult process known as "air launch," which employs a modified 747 jet to drop a rocket mid-flight and send small satellites into space.

Virgin Orbit has launched the majority of its rockets from its headquarters in California. In May 2020, the company launched its first mission, but the rocket failed on the way to space.
The second mission, in January 2021, was Virgin Orbit's first successful launch, with the rocket launching ten small satellites for NASA into orbit.

Following this, Virgin Orbit completed three missions, one in 2021 and two in 2022.
With the launch frequency decreasing, excitement was high for Virgin Orbit's sixth mission in January 2023. It was to be the United Kingdom's first orbital space launch from British soil. The Boeing took off from Spaceport Cornwall in Newquay and successfully dropped LauncherOne at a high altitude. However, Virgin Orbit triumphantly declared that its rocket had “successfully reached orbit”. Minutes later, Virgin Orbit admitted the rocket had in fact suffered an “anomaly” while blasting towards space at 11,000 miles per hour. The rocket failed and crashed back into the Atlantic Ocean.

Virgin Orbit has attempted to raise funds from investors in the aftermath of its failed UK launch. Matthew Brown, a Texas-based investor, was in talks to invest $200 million in Virgin Orbit, but the talks fell through. Branson owns 75% of Virgin Orbit and is the majority shareholder, but he did not want to fund the company further.Instead, he started hedging his 75% equity stake with a series of debt rounds. Because of this debt, the flashy British billionaire has first priority over Virgin Orbit assets in the event of the company's impending bankruptcy.

DISCLAIMER:
This channel is for educational purpose only. All videos, presentations and writing are for only educational purposes, and are not intended as investment advise
You can implement this while investing at your own risk and after consulting your financial advisor.