Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is liquidated after bankruptcy

Virgin Orbit will sell its modified products Boeing 747, known as Cosmic Girl, to Stratolaunch for $17 million after no better offers came forward, bankruptcy court filings filed Tuesday show. Meanwhile, Rocket Lab USA is buying Virgin Orbit’s primary rocket factory in California for $16.1 million.

The spotty sale suggests that no reasonable bids were made for the entirety of Virgin Orbit during an auction. According to court documents, Launcher plans to buy a test facility for $2.7 million. Vast Space recently announced a deal to acquire Launcher.

The deals, valued at more than $35 million, are subject to bankruptcy court approval.

Virgin Orbit did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Since then, Virgin Orbit has been evaluating options, including a potential sale Filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early April.

Founded by Branson as an offshoot of his space tourism company Virgin Galactic Holdings, Virgin Orbit focused on sending small satellites into space with its LauncherOne rocket. The vehicle is designed not to take off from the ground but under the wing of its Cosmic Girl jet. Virgin Orbit had successfully flown into orbit four times since 2021. In late 2021, the company went public through a reverse merger.

The company suffered one Notable failure in January 2023 when its LauncherOne rocket malfunctioned during a mission and failed to reach orbit, resulting in the loss of all nine satellites on board. Launched from Cornwall Cosmodrome in the UK, the mission would be the first orbital launch to take place from British soil.

Short of cash in mid-March, the company furloughed nearly its entire workforce during a stakeholder meeting as the company sought a financial lifeline. About a week later, the company was attempting to initiate some limited deals as executives negotiated with Texas-based venture capitalist Matthew Brown for a possible infusion of $200 million into the company.

That deal never materialized, however, and Virgin Orbit ceased operations entirely at the end of March.