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.

Other posts by Chris Forrester:

1. Terran Orbital sues CTO over coup attempt
2. Analyst: Dish bankruptcy “overwhelmingly probable”
3. Huawai confirms satellite mega-constellation
4. Bank downgrades Virgin Galactic
5. Rivada Networks wins legal action
6. Starship Test 3 before Xmas?
7. Musk denies IPO plan for Starlink
8. EchoStar’s Jupiter 3 being tested
9. Buyers emerge for ULA

Categories: Blogs, Funding, Inside Satellite, Satellite

Tags: Richard Branson, virgin, Virgin Orbit