Virgin Orbit hit pause Wednesday as the aerospace company reportedly seeks funding to keep it afloat.
Company executives told staff at an “all-hands” meeting at 5 p.m. that operations will shut down for a week, during which time nearly all workers will be furloughed without pay.
Furloughed workers will be allowed to cash in paid time off, or PTO, to makes ends meet, according to CNBC, which broke the news, citing sources who attended the meeting.
The company, which launched in 2017, is a satellite service operating within the Virgin Group.
Virgin Orbit said it hopes to update employees on the company’s status after the middle of next week. Company stock prices, which have been falling since the close of 2021, dropped 10% Wednesday.
The company bills itself as “the premier dedicated small-satellite launch service,” claiming its on “a mission to open space for everyone.”
Job loss in the tech sector has been rampant in 2023. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, announced this week it planned to layoff more than 10,000 employees in coming months. Spotify, Twilio and Google parent company Alphabet have also parted ways with thousands of workers in recent months.
Virgin Orbit was founded by billionaire businessman Richard Branson, whose Virgin Galactic competes with civilian space programs run by billionaires Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
The mood has been considerably lighter at Virgin Orbit in recent days. On March 2, the company celebrated its birthday on Twitter.
“Cue the confetti, today is our birthday!” they wrote. “On this day 6 years ago, we officially established our name – and the rest is history. We’ve come so far.”
———
