British billionaire Richard Branson wanted to expand his business into space with his company Virgin Orbit.
The company is now laying off around 85 percent of its employees and pausing its business activities. The reason is a failed satellite launch.
For Branson, this is a setback in the race for lucrative business in space.
After a failed satellite launch earlier this year, space company Virgin Orbit is laying off most of its employees. This emerges from a communication from the company to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Accordingly, the company of British billionaire Richard Branson announced that it would reduce the number of employees by 675 employees. That corresponds to about 85 percent of the workforce. Background are failed efforts to secure financial resources. Employees from all areas of the company are affected.
Virgin Orbit operations are said to be on hold
Virgin Orbit was instrumental in attempting to launch the first satellite into orbit from UK soil earlier this year. An aircraft first brought the launch vehicle to a high altitude before it was launched. But the mission failed. In mid-March, Virgin Orbit announced that it would pause operations for the time being. According to reports, business activities are now to be suspended until further notice.
So far, there had been a tough race for the private sector position in space between several billionaires. In addition to Branson, Tesla boss Elon Musk with his company “Space X” and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos with “Blue Origin” started last year to offer private flights into space. After all, Branson has a second space company: with Virgin Galactic, he offers flights into space.
sr/dpa