Richard Brandson's Rocket Company Virgin Orbit To Lay Off 675 Employees, Or 85% Workforce

New Delhi: Amid the spree of layoffs by tech companies, American entrepreneur Richard Branson’s rocket company Virgin Orbit has announced to fire 675 employees, or 85% workforce after it failed to secure new investment. The move will eventually reduce expenses “in light of the company’s inability to secure meaningful funding”. Hence, the firm will cease its operations, which marks a blow to the dream of Brandson to have his satellite launch vehicle company. The firing of employees will be substantially completed by April 3, 2023. And the company is expecting to recognize the majority of these charges in the first quarter of 2023.  

The company announced to incur the aggregate cost of approximately $15 million, consisting primarily of $8.8 million in severance payments and employee benefits costs and $6.5 million in other costs primarily related to outplacement services and WARN act exposure.

The company’s stocks plummeted drastically after its rocket failed in an attempt to send 9 satellites of UK to orbit.

About Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit is a private rocket company that provides launch services for small satellites. It was a brainchild of Richard Brandson founded in 2017. It comes under Virgin Group. It is trying to venture into space tourism by developing re-launch rockets to send people back and forth.

At the beginning of the year, Virgin Orbit failed to make a successful first launch. The company used a modified 747 jet to send satellites into space. But the rocket caught fire and nine satellites onboard wouldn’t reach orbit.