Total raised averaged per day over approximately 5.8 years from founding to bankruptcy or shutdown. This is not measured cash burn. Methodology
Funding: CNBC / Wikipedia
Current status
Bankrupt April 2023; assets sold
The rise & fall
8 moments · 2017–2023
The key moments, with employee sentiment along the way.
2017
🌱
2017
Spun out of Virgin Galactic
Richard Branson's air-launch bet: a modified 747 named Cosmic Girl drops small rockets from 35,000 feet instead of launching them off a pad.
Wikipedia
Jan 2021
Jan 2021
LauncherOne reaches orbit
The air-launch system finally works, lofting NASA cubesats from under the 747's wing.
CNBC
Dec 2021
📈
Dec 2021
The peak: a $3.7B SPAC listing$3.7B
Goes public on Nasdaq via SPAC — raising far less cash than hoped, but valuing the rocket company at ~$3.7B.
CNBC
Jan 2023
Jan 2023
The Cornwall launch fails
The first-ever orbital attempt from British soil ends with the rocket and its satellites in the sea — a gamble insiders later called premature.
CNBC
Mar 2023
Mar 2023
Furlough, then an ~85% layoff
An abrupt operational pause becomes a near-total layoff that catches employees hired a week earlier; a last-minute funding hunt has failed.
CNBC
2023
💬
From the inside · Glassdoor reviews, 2023
Employees loved the mission to the end — Glassdoor reviews posted in bankruptcy month still ran four and five stars — but blamed leadership rather than the rocket: insiders said hiring, construction and aircraft purchases never slowed even as the money ran out.
Apr 4 ’23
🪦
Apr 4 ’23
Chapter 11 — joins the Unitard Club 💔
Out of cash, Branson's rocket company files in Delaware. $1.23B raised; nearly all value wiped out.
CNBC
May 2023
May 2023
Sold for parts at auction
Rocket Lab takes the Long Beach headquarters and Stratolaunch takes the 747 — pieces of a $3.7B company going for a sliver of what was raised.
CNBC
$3.66Bof peak value erased · 6 years
💬 entries paraphrase anonymous, unverified reviews posted publicly on Glassdoor ↗; dated facts carry their source.
How it happened
Virgin Orbit was Richard Branson's air-launch satellite company, using a modified 747 to send small rockets to orbit, valued at ~$3.7B after its 2021 SPAC listing. A high-profile launch failure, mounting losses, and a failed last-minute funding effort left it out of cash. An abrupt furlough preceded an ~85% layoff that caught week-old hires; it filed for bankruptcy in April 2023, wiping out nearly all value.
