Virgin Orbit (OTCMKTS: VORBQ) has received approval from the Delaware Bankruptcy Court to proceed with a sale later this month that could see a new owner in charge by early June. The company also released its 2022 financial results, which include data that chronicle its downward spiral.

Astra Space (NAS: ASTR) will provide five Spacecraft Propulsion Kits for Apex Technology’s Aries satellite bus platform beginning later this year.

Relativity Space has announced that it was ending development of the Terran 1 rocket that failed during its maiden flight last month in favor of developing its larger Terran R launch vehicle.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity flew for the first time since July 2021 on Wednesday as the suborbital tourism vehicle made a glide flight test at Spaceport America in New Mexico.

In today’s biz briefs, L3Harris gets a big contract, Maxar shareholders vote to go private, Ursa Major and Orbit Fab raise fresh funds, Rocket Lab will re-fly an engine, and ESA wants your ideas for how to use lunar resources.

Nasdaq said it would suspend Virgin Orbit’s (NAS: VORB) stock on April 13, 2023 due to the company’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing last week and its failure to file its 2022 annual report with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The stock fell to $0.15 in after-hours trading on Monday.

U.S. commercial human spaceflight is set to accelerate over the next two years as SpaceX launches more commercial missions into orbit, Blue Origin’s New Shepard resumes suborbital flights, and Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo VSS Unity completes its test flight program and enters commercial service.

SES and Intelsat are in merger talks, Astrolab will send a rover to the Moon on SpaceX’s Starship rocket, and D-Orbit has won a $28.3 million contract from ESA.

Richard Branson’s cash strapped launch company Virgin Orbit announced on Thursday that it will shut down and lay off 675 of its 775 employees after failing to secure “meaningful funding” over the past two weeks. CEO Dan Hart made the announcement during an employee all-hands meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Starlink is having problems, ISAR just raised $165 million, and Boeing’s Starliner is delayed again.

It is the worst of times for launch providers Virgin Orbit and Astra Space, whose futures could be decided in the next week. And two satellite operators — Momentus and Spire Global — have received delisting warnings from their respective stock exchanges. On that dour note, let’s dive right into this week’s S-SPACⁱ.