Note that Virgin Orbit's niche (small plane-launched rockets into unusual orbits) is already served by the Pegasus rocket, previously by Orbital Sciences and now owned by Northrop. There's doesn't seem to be much demand for it though.
and Virgin Galactic's first 50 launches were failures and VG's first 20 years of existence were a colossal failure. Maybe if a company can't make things work after two decades, it should be dissolved? Or should we let them exist in a malaise of failure for another decade?
Virgin Orbit actually had four successful launches and two failures (their first and apparently last launches). What’s sad about them collapsing right now is they were the only launch partner for the UK’s only spaceport, and if we were generous enough to chalk up the last failure as bad luck, it’s a shame if the whole ecosystem suffers, perhaps irreparably, because of it.
It's a shame the company wasn't competent enough to succeed. Why must this be spelled out? I feel like half this thread is bad faith face-value pedanticism for no benefit.
Because it's about as meaningless a comment as saying "thoughts and prayers". There's nothing shameful about an incompetent company going out of business, it's actually exactly what should happen.
SpaceX’s secret sauce was mass manufacturing. Not building a rocket, but building a system that builds rockets. I remember, over a decade ago, looking at these shops and realising the specialty plane Virgin’s launch systems relied on were being built as works of art. Falcons, on the other hand, were not. Even with the company’s eye on reuse.
Mass manufacturing may be important, but there's also a fully reusable first stage, and then just executing. These days they're reusing things enough that I'm not sure the mass manufacturing is so important
SpaceX went through a similarly fragile stage where it nearly went bankrupt before it turned things around and managed to get the Falcon 9 going. Elon Musk got lucky with securing funding at the last minute. And of course he did take on a lot of personal financial risk at the time. Maybe the difference between Branson and Musk is how far they are willing to go.
> realising the specialty plane Virgin’s launch systems relied on
Virgin Galactic which depends upon those "specialty planes" is doing fine, apparently. It's Virgin Orbit with the 747-based system to orbit that is probably at its end.
Long term Virgin Orbit probably did itself a favor with the launch failure - better a fast end than a slow strangulation by not being competitive with reusable rockets.
A company doesn't develop the need to cease operations overnight.
There's usually a core of faulty decision-makers who have become ingrained over time, leading the way toward financial unsustainability. Their jobs can be basically untouchable while the company is seemingly operating without undue threat.
Once too much failure is undeniable, these people keep themselves on board to continue administering the company as well as possible before the money runs out.
Still untouchable but when you do the math the company will last a lot longer before total closure, being administered the way they do but without all that expensive operations stuff.
And maybe make a comeback if they can get some support but it may take confidence in their team's ability to succeed with perhaps a proven-to-fail mindset.
Some people can build that kind of confidence sometimes, you never know.
The same thing that leads toward doom could also be what keeps things alive as a zombie.
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[ 5.8 ms ] story [ 42.2 ms ] threadWe definitely need more rather than less competition in 'new space'.
Note that Virgin Orbit's niche (small plane-launched rockets into unusual orbits) is already served by the Pegasus rocket, previously by Orbital Sciences and now owned by Northrop. There's doesn't seem to be much demand for it though.
https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2017/09/29/elon-musk-9-years-ago-sp...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_1#Launches
It is kind of a space race after all.
Virgin Galactic which depends upon those "specialty planes" is doing fine, apparently. It's Virgin Orbit with the 747-based system to orbit that is probably at its end.
Mhm.
It is truly amazing what you can legally get away with
A company doesn't develop the need to cease operations overnight.
There's usually a core of faulty decision-makers who have become ingrained over time, leading the way toward financial unsustainability. Their jobs can be basically untouchable while the company is seemingly operating without undue threat.
Once too much failure is undeniable, these people keep themselves on board to continue administering the company as well as possible before the money runs out.
Still untouchable but when you do the math the company will last a lot longer before total closure, being administered the way they do but without all that expensive operations stuff.
And maybe make a comeback if they can get some support but it may take confidence in their team's ability to succeed with perhaps a proven-to-fail mindset.
Some people can build that kind of confidence sometimes, you never know.
The same thing that leads toward doom could also be what keeps things alive as a zombie.