Virgin Orbit, a satellite launch provider that split from Virgin Galactic in 2017, announced Thursday that it's cutting the majority of its workforce and discontinuing operations.
Dan Hart, CEO of the Long Beach, California-based Virgin Orbit, told employees on an all-hands call Thursday that the company didn't secure necessary funding in order to continue operations and would have to implement "immediate, dramatic and extremely painful changes," according to a CNBC report.
According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from Thursday, those changes include letting go of 675 employees. That's about 85% of the company's workforce.
Virgin Orbit's workforce reductions and operational changes won't affect any Virgin Galactic operations in New Mexico, Jeff Michael, communications specialist for Virgin Galactic, confirmed for Albuquerque Business First on Friday.
Virgin Orbit (NASAQ: VORB), which went public in late 2021 following a SPAC merger, spun off from Virgin Galactic (NYSE: SPCE) in early 2017. The companies are no longer affiliated. Instead of flying paying customers to the upper reaches of the atmosphere, Virgin Orbit's focus has been on sending small satellites into orbit using a rocket launched from a modified 747 jet, dubbed "Cosmic Girl."
Cosmic Girl's January flight out of its base at Spaceport Cornwall in the United Kingdom was deemed unsuccessful after Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne rocket failed to reach orbit, causing the company's stock to tumble.
The share price of Virgin Orbit stock closed at $0.34 Thursday following a 52-week high of $7.59, per MarketWatch.
In other aerospace news, Michael Colglazier, Virgin Galactic's CEO, said in an earnings call last month that the company plans to resume commercial service in the second quarter of this year. Those highly anticipated commercial flights by the space tourism company have been beset by delays.
Virgin Galactic's "mothership," VMS Eve, flew from Mojave, California to New Mexico's Spaceport America in late February after undergoing some mechanical changes. Shares of the company's stock saw a bump last month, too, after VMS Eve completed its first flight since 2021.
That stock is trending up today, per MarketWatch; Virgin Galactic stock's share price opened at $3.96 on Friday and sat at $4.11 at the time of publishing.
