Chamath Palihapitiya, chairman and a member of Virgin Galactic’s board, Is stepping down. He says he wants “to focus on other public company board commitments.” His departure is immediate, says a company statement. As part of the announcement, the Board appointed director Evan Lovell as Interim Chairman until a new chair is in place. Lovell […]
Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic Holdings is looking to sell $425 million (and up to $500 million if the response is good) of convertible bonds in a private offering. Virgin Galactic will use the cash to fund working capital and general administrative purposes. The company has next-to-zero income (last year it declared just $3.2 million […]
An Omani scientific satellite will be carried and launched from Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne rocket when it makes its first launch from Cornwall in the UK later this year. The Omani payload, developed by Earth observation specialist Poland-based SatRevolution, will be put into low Earth orbit to collect climate data. The mission is the follow-on to […]
Sir Richard Branson-backed Virgin Orbit has taken a 17.5 per cent stake in Earth Observation image company Hypersat, as well as investing in a funding round for Poland-based SatRevolution. Hypersat is already a client of Virgin Orbit and used Virgin’s rocket plane to launch 6 of its Hyperspectral satellites. Poland’s SatRevolution is busy raising cash […]
Elon Musk’s SpaceX team postponed the planned December 1st launch of another batch of Starlink satellites for 24-hours until around 6pm (Florida time) on December 2nd. However, Musk was again Tweeting over his concerns about raising more capital and the potential risk of failure. “If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability […]
Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) has reserved 20 Virgin Orbit flights aboard the company’s LauncherOne rocket-plane. An earlier MoU established the relationship between the two. The updated MoU, signed on November 4th, and initialled by Virgin Orbit’s CEO Dan Hart and ANA’s EVP Koji Shibata, has one special condition: the flights must happen from Japan […]
Virgin Media O2, the multiplay telco formed by the £31 billion merger of UK broadband cabler Virgin Media and cellco O2, has launched its first joint product, Volt, which it says gives customers the best of both brands, with even greater value. It says that Virgin Media and O2 customers can now supercharge their services […]
The Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) has approved Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic resumption of its flying status. The hold up was due to a review of Virgin Galactic’s most recent SpaceShipTwo flight which deviated from its agreed flight plan on July 11th. There were 6 people on board including Branson and the flight reached an […]
Virgin Orbit (and not Virgin Galactic, which has problems with the US FAA over flight safety) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding and collaboration with Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). The agreement sees Virgin Orbit and SwRI exploring multiple specialized mission opportunities using the company’s LauncherOne rocket system and “coupled with SwRI’s deep expertise in space […]
Bitmax, the global media management and licensing company, will be releasing the documentary Eating Our Way to Extinction across digital platforms including iTunes & Google from September 30th. The acclaimed documentary, narrated by Academy Award winner Kate Winslet and featuring Sir Richard Branson, will premier in London on September 8th and will be available for […]