Branson’s ‘financing two-step’ for Virgin Orbit

Sir Richard Branson managed to handle a reverse take-over of his Virgin Galactic space tourism business by a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) and a stock market listing in October 2019.

Now he is reportedly trying a similar scheme with Virgin Orbit.

Branson is looking for another SPAC, this time targeting NextGeneration Acquisition II, which has a New York market listing and the reports suggest there could be a $3 billion benefit to Virgin Orbit.

Virgin Orbit was spun out of Virgin Galactic some 4 years ago.

Virgin Orbit uses a converted Virgin Airways Boeing 747-400 (‘Cosmic Girl’) and which carries a rocket under its port wing. The aircraft takes off and discharges the Launcher 1 rocket at about 35,000 ft (10,700m) where the rocket carries on to its target hight before deploying its cargo satellites.

The Launcher 1 rockets can carry smallish craft, totalling about 500 kgs.