Virgin Orbit to prepare insolvency plans after rocket failure

Virgin Orbit is prepared to prepare insolvency plans in case it can't get emergency funding from investors this week, according to Sky News.

The Virgin Group is reportedly working with Ducera and Alvarez Marsal A&M to draw up fallback plans in case funding can't be secured.

On Wednesday, Virgin Orbit stopped all operations and canceled most of its employees after the company experienced a mid-flight rocket failure when trying to send satellites to orbit from Cornwall, England.

When the failure happened, the company's shares fell by as much as 20%, according to a report by the company.

A company-wide operational pause will be instituted on March 16, 2023, and Virgin Orbit anticipates to provide an update on go-forward operations in the coming weeks, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The Virgin Orbit spokeswoman added that they expect to be able to return to flight as soon as the investigation has concluded. We're in the final stages of that as well as integrating the changes and lessons learned from that into our next rocket, which we plan to fly later this year. The employees of Virgin Orbit are still furloughed but they are still getting time off and retaining benefits.

Virgin Orbit was created in 2017 by As a venture that wanted to commercialize space travel. It has launched 33 satellites and made four successful missions.