Virgin Orbit CEO: “We made mistakes”
April 20, 2023
By Chris Forrester
Virgin Orbit is already flying again despite its Chapter 11 bankruptcy. At least one test flight has taken place since the bankruptcy was put in place. However, Virgin Orbit’s CEO Dan Hart has admitted that he and the business had made mistakes.
Hart said that some key financial and operational “missteps” meant the company had burned through millions of dollars while only making a handful of successful launches.
“At the end of the day, as a CEO, those are my choices, and I think about this a lot. I could have made different choices along the way,” he said in an interview quoted by the Washington Post. “I mean, innovation is a messy business, and you make choices and you walk out in the parking lot each day. And you wonder, did I move the ball forward? Or do we go backward today?”
Hart added that the company was now in a lot of discussions with potential buyers to the business which is now operating on Debtor in Possession cash from its main backer Sir Richard Branson.
Opening bids are due to be tabled on May 14th and Virgin Orbit is working towards making its next satellite flight during Q3.