Advanced Television

Richard Branson

Virgin Orbit readies ‘straight up’ launch mission

Virgin Orbit has been rehearsing its launch plans and on June 29th there is a window open to place its client’s satellite into orbit under Virgin’s ‘straight up’ plan. The launch calls for Virgin Orbit to place the US Space Force’s STP-S28A mission and carry payloads for the Department of Defense (DOD) Space Test Programme […]

June 27, 2022By Chris Forrester

Virgin Galactic signs 800 future astronauts

Space tourism business Virgin Galactic says around 800 would-be “astronauts” have made reservations for one of its sub-orbital flights. That might be the best news for the Sir Richard Branson-backed company which declared a delay to its passenger flights (to Q1/2023) and a net loss of $93 million for Q1 this year ($130 million loss […]

May 9, 2022

Virgin Orbit reveals 2022-23 plans

Sir Richard Branson-backed space plane and small satellite launcher Virgin Orbit has reported a downbeat revenue picture for 2021 with just two launches last year (and only one to date in 2022). This translated into a net loss of $157.3 million (€141.5m) for 2021 on $ 7.4 million in revenue. Back in August last year […]

March 31, 2022

Virgin Orbit confirms Cornwall launch

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit rocket plane project has signed a contract with European in-space manufacturing tech start-up Space Forge to launch a Welsh-built small satellite from Cornwall. The satellite will be launched as part of a broader joint UK-US mission to open the country’s first domestic space port in summer 2022 out of Spaceport […]

March 11, 2022By Chris Forrester

Inside trading suit filed against Virgin Galactic

Sir Richard Branson and Chamath Palihapitiya, the former chairman of Branson’s Virgin Galactic rocket tourism company, who unexpectedly stepped down in February, have been accused of issuing misleading information to shareholders over the company’s share float and how it was financed. The investor lawsuit, filed February 21st by Virgin Galactic shareholder Thomas Spiteri, seeks damages […]

March 7, 2022By Chris Forrester

Virgin Galactic boss steps down

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 […]

February 21, 2022By Chris Forrester

Virgin Galactic to offer $425m of new debt

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 […]

February 1, 2022By Chris Forrester

Virgin Orbit schedules launch from Cornwall

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 […]

January 28, 2022By Chris Forrester

Virgin Orbit invests in Hypersat, SatRevolution

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 […]

December 17, 2021By Chris Forrester

Musk shares more on bankruptcy fear

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 […]

December 2, 2021