Cosmic Girl, a Virgin Boeing 747-400 sits on the tarmac with a single Virgin Orbit launcher attached to the wing, ahead of the UK’s first launch tonight, at Spaceport Cornwall at Newquay Airport in Newquay, Britain, January 9, 2023.
Henry Nichols | Reuters
Virgin Orbit The stock fell in Monday night trading, after the company confirmed that its first launch from the UK failed to reach orbit.
Virgin Orbit shares were down 30% in after-hours trading, from their previous close of $1.93 a share.
The company uses a modified 747 to send satellites into space, by dropping a rocket from under the plane’s wing mid-flight — a method known as an air launch.
Virgin Orbit’s webcast showed the launch of the LauncherOne rocket and its engine firing, with the company saying in a tweet that the rocket had “successfully reached Earth’s orbit.” But about half an hour later, the company announced that the launch was an “anomaly” and that the nine satellites on board would not reach orbit.
Virgin Orbit is reviewing launch data to determine the source of the failure, and has acknowledged that it has deleted the tweet about the orbital arrival. The 747 and its crew returned safely and landed at Spaceport Cornwall in southwest England.
Monday’s mission was Virgin Orbit’s sixth so far, and its second launch failure.
The company has only conducted two launches in 2022, short of the forecast for four to six missions that Virgin Orbit made at the beginning of last year. At the end of the third quarter, Virgin Orbit had $71.2 million in cashand raised an additional $25 million from Richard Branson Virgin Group, an existing major shareholder, is in the middle of the fourth quarter.
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