Virgin Orbit
Virgin Orbit’s launch business sold for parts to Vast, Stratolaunch, and Rocket Lab
Virgin Orbit, once valued at $3.7 billion, has been chopped up for parts. The company has concluded the auction for some of its assets, which were put up for sale as part of its Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Stratolaunch submits $17M bid for some of Virgin Orbit’s assets
Virgin Orbit may have found a buyer for some of its assets in hypersonic flight company Stratolaunch, according to new court filings. Stratolaunch submitted a $17 million bid for some assets, includin
Virgin Orbit files for bankruptcy
Virgin Orbit, the low Earth orbit small-payload launch company that was spun out of Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic, has filed for bankruptcy protection with the U.S. Securities and Exchange C
Virgin Orbit burns up in uncontrolled descent
Virgin Orbit announced mass layoffs of 85% of its workforce, or 675 people, after it failed to secure additional funding.
At Virgin Orbit, it never should’ve come to a staff furlough
Last night, CNBC broke the bombshell news that Virgin Orbit was pausing operations for at least a week while it looked for funding to support the business. As part of that pause, company executives re
Virgin Orbit pauses operations for a week to conduct a search for cash
Virgin Orbit is halting all operations for a week to save money while it “conducts discussions with potential funding sources and explores strategic opportunities,” the company announced i
One faulty fuel filter scuttled Virgin Orbit’s big UK launch debut
Launch is hard, but at least now that every rocket is sending extremely detailed live telemetry back to HQ, teams can know what led to a failed launch within days or weeks. Case in point: Virgin Orbit
Max Q: Anomalous
Last week wasn't the most successful for spaceflight missions. We'll get into that.
Virgin Orbit says issue with rocket’s second stage led to mission failure
Virgin Orbit, the unconventional rocket company founded by billionaire Sir Richard Branson, said its mission failure earlier this week was due to an anomaly with the rocket’s second stage. Although
Virgin Orbit’s botched launch highlights shaky financial future
Virgin Orbit’s much-hyped launch from Cornwall, U.K. on Monday ended in failure, with the company announcing that the mission experienced an “anomaly” that prevented the rocket from reaching orb
Virgin Orbit mission suffers anomaly in first orbital launch from British soil
Update: Despite successfully reaching second engine cut-off and thus past many of the most difficult parts of launch, the Start Me Up mission has suffered “an anomaly that has prevented us from
UK regulator says it’s not to blame for Virgin Orbit mission delay
Virgin Orbit is retargeting a launch that was supposed to take place as soon as next week from Cornwall, England — and that was to be the first spaceflight to depart from British soil — du
Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab gear up for launches on new continents
Virgin Orbit and Rocket Lab are expanding their launch capacities as each company gears up for inaugural missions from countries that they have never flown from. For Rocket Lab, that’s the United St
Max Q: Testing, testing
In this issue: Northrop Grumman and Firefly Aerospace want to make the Antares rocket all-American; how Muon Space is locking in customers; news from SpaceX, OneWeb and more
Watch Virgin Orbit’s ‘Straight Up’ launch of Space Force satellites live tonight
Update: The launch was delayed due to a slight problem with propellant temperature, but Virgin Orbit has confirmed it will make its next attempt tonight (July 1st) no earlier than 10:20 PM PDT. Update
UK taps Virgin Orbit to launch first satellites from its own soil this summer
The United Kingdom has a small but growing space industry, with the number of space-related organizations increasing by an average of 21% each year since 2012, but there is one key component it’
Max Q: All eyes on Astra
Hi folks, welcome back to Max Q. This week we have news on rockets both small (Astra’s Rocket 3.3) and very, very large (NASA’s Space Launch System). Plus further fallout from Russia’
Virgin Orbit to go public via $3.2B SPAC deal
Virgin Orbit is set to go public via a merger with a special purpose acquisitions company (SPAC), the company has confirmed. The deal values the combined enterprise at $3.2 billion, and will provide V
Max Q: Billionaire Blast-off Boys Club
Max Q is a weekly newsletter from TechCrunch all about space. Sign up here to receive it weekly on Mondays in your inbox. It’s a space race of the most indulgent kind, plus there’s a new c
Virgin Orbit successfully launches its first commercial payloads to space
Virgin Orbit had a successful first commercial launch, meaning there’s now officially another small satellite launch provider in operation with a track record of delivering payloads to space. Vi