Virgin Orbit lays off 85% of staff as funding deal falters
- Reference: 1680266234
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/03/31/virgin_orbit_lays_off_staff/
- Source link:
In a [1]note to investors [PDF], Virign Orbit announced a workforce reduction of approximately 675 employees, in a plan to “reduce expenses in light of the Company's inability to secure meaningful funding.”
Reports suggest Virgin Orbit could continue in a shell form while chief executive Dan Hart makes last-minute attempts to secure funding. Talks have continued with at least one financial investor in recent days, the [2]Financial Times said.
[3]
Last week, SpaceX and OpenAI backing venture capitalist Matthew Brown, of Matthew Brown Companies, [4]said he was in talks with the UK space biz. A leaked term sheet seen by Reuters had suggested funding of $200 million might be available. That now appears to have failed to materialize. Earlier, the business ended all operations to "conserve capital" while it looked for funding to stave off bankruptcy, reportedly treating its staff to an unpaid furlough.
[5]
[6]
The UK government and space industry had high hopes for Virgin Orbit as part of a wider industrial strategy based on space engineering and launch capability.
In July last year, the country's [7]science minister George Freeman congratulated Virgin Orbit on a successful US mission . “It’s incredible to see Cosmic Girl and LauncherOne in action before they head to Spaceport Cornwall. We are in a strong position to capitalize on the growing global demand for small satellite launch and to do so in a way that will keep space and our planet sustainable for future generations,” he said.
[8]Matthew Brown Companies confirms it's in funding talks with Virgin Orbit
[9]Capital crunch: Virgin Orbit confirms all ops on pause until Tuesday
[10]Wannabe space 'superpower' UK tosses £1.6M at eight research projects
[11]Space startup ABL emulates Virgin Orbit failure by crashing
But that optimism was soon met with the harsh reality of space engineering. To paraphrase countless space business folks and those who work on the tech: "Space is hard."
In January, Virgin Orbit, [12]failed in an attempt to launch a satellite into orbit from the underbelly of a 747 jet which had taken off from Newquay Airport, the aerospace locus for the seaside town otherwise known as a Spaceport Cornwall.
[13]
The aircraft named Cosmic Girl took off as planned to reach 35,000 feet above the Irish Sea, but while the rocket LauncherOne detached as planned and reached space, it did not secure the intended orbit for its payload. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://investors.virginorbit.com/sec-filings/all-sec-filings/content/0001843388-23-000063/0001843388-23-000063.pdf
[2] https://www.ft.com/content/60e3647c-401b-45c5-b306-b814af828aed
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZCcDombJ8eeA9N9dxyI-hAAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/24/virgin_orbit_sec_update/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCcDombJ8eeA9N9dxyI-hAAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZCcDombJ8eeA9N9dxyI-hAAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.gov.uk/government/news/virgin-orbit-mission-success-brings-uk-launch-another-step-closer
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/24/virgin_orbit_sec_update/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/16/virgin_orbit/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/08/uk_space_research_funding/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/12/rocket_abl_failure/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/10/virgin_orbit_doesnt/
[13] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/science&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZCcDombJ8eeA9N9dxyI-hAAAAAw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Where is the support?
They are processing the permit to be allowed to submit an application to receive the form.
So does this mean that The Great British Space Port will now feature . . . . a replacement bus service ? (maybe a shuttle bus, if you like)
Whatever else, we can say for sure that it will continue to include the most important aspect of any post-Brexit project.... plenty of Union Jacks all over the place and lashings of puffed-up John Bull-shittery.
Rockets cannot be developed into reliable businesses with just one launch.
Is Branson behind this venture or not? Or anyone else for that matter?
How much taxpayer cash was funneled into (another) potty flag waving project?
And who will be expected to bail them out at the end?
Like the US Pegasus system, air-launched small satellites are challenging to make commercially viable, especially when you can rideshare on other more traditional launchers.
Branson? He'll be taking his royalties for use of the Virgin name, and that's all...
[1]Cornwall Council "invested" £10 million into the Spaceport at the same time as [2]cutting the Duchy's museum grants meaning it almost had to close and still faces an uncertain future. Hopefully the Cornish taxpayers will start asking some hard questions!
Looks Cornwall will have to go back to Wrecking at this rate -->
[1] https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/spaceport-cornwall-says-focus-building-8257895
[2] https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/future-risk-cornwall-museum-secured-8268883
Space is Hard
Whatever you think about Musk and his Twitter escapades, he understands spacecraft development. He accepted - indeed publicized - the launch and landing failures as part of the development and learning of getting into space and had clearly planned for some. It probably also helps that he put a fair chunk of his own money into it. It would appear that Virgin only planned and budgeted as far as a successful first flight from the UK and assumed that would be easy to get more investment on the back of the first launch.
What planet are the politicians on?
-> a wider industrial strategy based on space engineering and launch capability
Politicians: Let's put our industrial eggs into a basket about which we have not much knowledge, almost no experience, and ~0 capacity. Drinks all round.
Re: What planet are the politicians on?
This one, thankfully.
It’s a pain for us but the aliens are massively relieved.——->
Cast of thousands
Why do they need 800+ people?
When SpaceX had their first successful Falcon 1 flight (after 3 failures) I believe they had less than 150 people.
Startups (and VO is a startup) need to be lean so they don't just blow through all the money, like VO has.
Re: Cast of thousands
Indeed, and that first successful flight was under threat of the axe of the entire company.
Britain is the only country to cancel a working space programme having proven the ability to do it... Rather sad how we've become red tape and PR chasers rather than actually investing in stuff.
Re: Cast of thousands
If Wikipedia is to be believed, it looks as though Black Arrow was cancelled because at the time the USA offered cheap satellite launches to the UK as a loss leader.... I wonder how the space industry would look today if Black Arrow hadn't been cancelled. Given that launches would have then continued from Woomera, would Australia have a burgeoning space industry now?
Re: Cast of thousands
-> it looks as though Black Arrow was cancelled because at the time the USA offered cheap satellite launches to the UK as a loss leader
The same Wikipedia article is short on information and can hardly be considered a good reference. However there is this important nugget: "Prior to the cancellation of Black Arrow, NASA had offered to launch British payloads for free; however, this offer was withdrawn following the decision to cancel Black Arrow."
What a surprise! A potential competitor removed from the market.
Re: Cast of thousands
It's possible (probable?) that Black Arrow was actually cancelled due to Polaris development... After all, how many satelites did the UK need to launch in the early 60's? There was (unfortunately) one really compelling reason for a country to want a space launch capability back then.
Who dares, wins
Nice to see everyone slagging off a company that at least did try to make a go of it. Naturally if they'd been successful it would have been drinkies all round to whoops of ain't tech brilliant. Plus the disaster that is Brexit (which guarantees down votes -- there are some on the planet still too stupid to see this) would have picked on this as see, look how good Brexit is, here's a million union flags.
But it looks like they've failed, so everyone can now be smug and criticise.
The US does it much better. Yes, we know that for some things the private sector is better. But as the article says, space is hard. Musk put $100m of his own money into SpaceX. He apparently had sleepless nights worrying if he would fail, but he clearly has some strong skills, because look at SpaceX now. And in large part that is because Nasa put up public money to help drive investment and innovation. Some things won't pay off, but it only takes one to be ultra successful and that can be stunning. But you don't know if you don't try.
This will never work in the UK because public money is only there to be creamed off by politicians. Baroness [1]Mone springs to mind.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-64029040
Virgin Orbit could continue in a shell form while chief executive Dan Hart...
...continues to take a salary, for running a near-non-existent company?
"keeping 15 percent"
Lighthouse duties are fine, but those 15% had better start polishing their CVs now.
Where is the support?
The politicians were all happy to mug in front of the cameras the day before the launch, now nowehere to be seen