Virgin Orbit has reportedly stopped its operations and laid off nearly all of its employees, in an effort to obtain additional funding.
"Virgin Orbit is starting an operational pause across the company, effective (starting) March 16, 2023, and anticipates providing updates on its next operations in the coming weeks," the company said in a statement.
On Wednesday March 15, employees were told during a meeting of all staff where the rest of the workforce would be subject to unpaid leave, although employees could cash out their annual leave.
Meanwhile, Virgin Orbit's Chief Executive, Dan Hart, explained to employees that placing them on leave would buy time to complete a new investment plan.
The pause scared investors, and Virgin Orbit's stock immediately fell 18.8 percent to 82 cents. Shares listed on the US Nasdaq exchange, fell 44 percent this year, as quoted by CNBC International, Friday, March 17.
The decision came after billionaire Richard Branson's company failed its first satellite mission from British soil in January.
The mission, dubbed Start Me Up with the LauncherOne rocket, took off from Spaceport Cornwall, England. However, recently launching live, detonating nine satellites into orbit, thousands of people gathered near Newquay in Cornwall to witness the historic mission.
After that, Virgin Orbit announced an anomaly had occurred and rockets failed to reach the required altitude. The rocket is also a missing satellite.
So far, Virgin Orbit said investigations into mission failures are nearing completion and subsequent production rockets with the necessary modifications are in the final stages of integration as well as testing.
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