Virgin Orbit began as a Richard Branson show pristine Galaxy in 2012 before being spun off right into a separate company five years later.
In a personal space race, Virgin Orbit claimed that its rocket launch method – generally known as “air launch” – was more flexible than traditional launch pads utilized by competitors resembling Rocket Laboratory, Astra and SpaceX.
The company hired a modified Boeing 747, which he named “Cosmic Girl”, to take the LauncherOne rocket to an altitude of about 35,000 feet before dropping it.
From there, the rocket would start its engines and fly into space.
“By launching from an airplane, Virgin could take off from almost any airport on the planet and switch those airports into spaceports,” said Caleb Henry, director of research at Quilty Analytics.
Henry noted that Virgin Orbit’s last launch was within the UK and that the corporate is in talks to launch in Japan and Brazil.
“They offered different countries the likelihood, in a way, of getting a sovereign capability to launch, since the rocket could be launched from their home soil,” said Henry.
But Virgin Orbit was suffering from delays. The company initially hoped to launch its debut mission in 2018, however it only got off the bottom in May 2020. The demonstration mission failed shortly after the launch of the rocket. In total, the corporate launched six missions, 4 of which were successful and two failed, including the last one in January.
Virgin Orbit’s biggest deal was a 39-launch deal signed with satellite manufacturer OneWeb in 2015. OneWeb eventually pulled out of the deal without carrying out a single launch.
“The challenge for an organization, and for any startup company, is having a serious customer, someone you may depend on to routinely buy a good amount of startups,” said Henry. “Virgin Orbit did not have a serious client.”
In late March, Virgin Orbit said it was shedding most of its staff and ceasing operations “for the foreseeable future” after failing to secure funding. A number of days later, the corporate declared bankruptcy.
Watch the video to search out out more concerning the causes of Virgin Orbit’s collapse.
