No More Virgins in Space?

Virgin Orbit, the space satellite firm owned by Sir Richard Branson, has filed for bankruptcy in the US of A after failing to find any new investor. With debts amounting to USD153 million, the company had no choice but to file for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in the Americaland, a process which allows a company to keep operating and address financial issues whilst not allowing debtors to close the company.

The satellite launch firm has already halted operations as it searches for fresh capital and they are still hopeful that they will find a buyer willing to continue the venture. Virgin Orbit is based in California and had a work force of 750 engineers, most of whom are now already out on the employment line.

Earlier this year, the first commercial launch for Virgin Orbit failed to launch from their space centre near Newquay Cornwall, which is in the southwest of England. Their rockets were launched from the underside of a modified Boeing 747 and were seen as being a much more affordable route to the stars as the take-off is cheaper and the spacecraft is reusable, much in the way that NASA’s Space Shuttle was.

Believe it or not, the satellite launch business is a crowded and very competitive industry sector right now, but what Virgin Orbiter has is a key unique point. As their craft is launched from under a modified 747, it can be launched from just about any airport and at short notice, well, in theory anyway. This could be of immeasurable value to the military.

Space investors thus far have all had their fingers burnt as they reached for the stars. Sure Virgin Orbiter had developed cutting edge launch technology but they had failed to have a successful launch. The UK Space Agency who worked closely with Virgin still believes that there is hope for Virgin to be resurrected, pointing out that in the UK alone, the Space Sector generated some GBP17.5 billion in revenue last year.

Even though the Virgin Group has invested and lost about USD1 billion in the failed venture, Sir Richard is not done with space just yet. His space tourism company, Virgin Galactic, has already started to sell tickets priced at US$450,000 per trip and celebrities like Justin Bieber has already signed up, so the dream of space virgins is still alive.