Virgin Orbit has filed for bankruptcy protection in the States after failing to get the funding needed to recover from a January rocket failure. Its bid for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection comes less than a week after the California-based satellite launch company announced it was laying off 85 percent of its staff and stopping operations for the foreseeable future.
Virgin Orbit, which is three-quarters owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, lodged the filing in the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware seeking a sale of its assets.
In the court it listed assets and liability between $100m (£80m) and $500m (£403m).
The company aborted the UK’s first satellite launch from Cornwall in January.
