Photo Illustration by Thomas Levinson/The Daily Beast/Reuters/Virgin
Shortly before midnight on Jan. 9, a camera on the Canary Islands operated by the Spanish Meteor Network caught a spectacular fireball plunging into the Atlantic Ocean. Although it looked a lot like a meteor, it wasn’t. It was a rocket with a payload of nine satellites burning up after failing to reach orbit.
Much more was burning up than a lot of expensive rocketry and cargo. The rocket had been launched not from the ground, but from high up over the Atlantic from a converted Boeing 747 jumbo jet bearing the somewhat raffish moniker of Cosmic Girl, operated by Richard Branson’s company Virgin Orbit. Within minutes of the failure being livestreamed to the world, the company’s shares lost almost a quarter of their value.
Now Virgin Orbit has declared bankruptcy, ceased operations, and laid off most of its staff.