Virgin Orbit has announced that it will halt all operations and place almost all of its staff on furlough.
This decision comes after the company’s first satellite mission from UK soil failed to reach orbit earlier this year.
In a meeting with staff on Wednesday, Chief Executive Dan Hart stated that the furlough was designed to provide the company with time to finalize a new investment plan.
The length of the furlough period is currently unknown, but Hart has promised to update employees by the middle of next week.
Virgin Orbit’s shares fell almost 19% to 82 cents (72p) in extended trading after the announcement.
Virgin Orbit had been valued at $3.2bn in a “blank cheque deal” to take the satellite launch company public on the US stock market in 2021.
However, the launch failure on 9 January was a major setback for the business.
An investigation into the mission failure from the Spaceport Cornwall site at Newquay Airport is ongoing. Richard Branson’s company said in a statement that its investigation is nearly complete, and the next production rocket with necessary modifications is in the final stages of integration and test.
The highly-anticipated launch led to disappointment after the rocket failed to deploy its payload of nine satellites.
The craft had “successfully executed pre-flight preparations, carrier aircraft take-off, captive carry flight, and rocket release,” but an “anomaly” led to a “premature shutdown.”
Mr Hart described the mission failure as “painful for all involved.”
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