Virgin Orbit’s decision to initiative a week-long pause in its operations starting Thursday has left more than 600 employees in California on unpaid furloughs wondering if they still have jobs while the cash-strapped company seeks funding to continue launching satellites.

WASHINGTON — During a panel discussion at Satellite 2023 Conference on Wednesday afternoon, United Launch Alliance (ULA) CEO Tory Bruno predicted there would be a shake out among small launch providers over the next 24 months that could leave only one or two companies standing. CNBC reports that process might have already begun earlier in the day with Richard Branson’s struggling launch provider.

Richard Branson has put another $5 million into Virgin Orbit (NAS: VORB) this week, raising to $60 million the amount the billionaire has put into the struggling launch provider over the past four months.

Virgin Orbit has said that a dislodged fuel filter caused the failure of a LauncherOne flight with nine payloads aboard last month. According to the company’s update:

Welcome this week’s S-SPACⁱ.

Intuitive Machines (NAS: LUNR) debuted on the NASDAQ exchange on Tuesday after the company received only a fraction of the amount it had planned to raise by merging with the Inflection Point Acquisition Corp. special purpose acquisition company (SPAC).

Virgin Orbit (NAS: VORB) has received an additional $10 million from Virgin Investments Limited (VIL), raising to $55 million the amount the investment group has pumped into the struggling launch provider over the past three months.

A couple of updates on the launch failures this week.

ABL Space reports that all nine E2 engines on the RS1 rocket’s first stage failed simultaneously shortly after liftoff from the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska on Tuesday. The rocket fell back on its launch pad and exploded, resulting in significant damage but no injuries, the company said.

ABL Space’s RS1 rocket failed shortly after liftoff from its launch pad at the Pacific Spaceport Complex – Alaska (PSCA) on Tuesday, the company said.

Happy New Year to all and welcome to the first S-SPACⁱ of 2023.

SpaceX started off the year with a boom on Tuesday with the launch of its Transporter-6 rideshare mission from Cape Canaveral in Florida. The Falcon 9 first stage booster touched down on land instead of an off-shore drone ship, sending a sonic boom echoing across the Sunshine State.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority responded to claims that it is responsible for holding up Virgin Orbit’s launch from Spaceport Cornwall. Tim Johnson, Director for Space Regulation, said in a statement: “The UK space regulation process is not a barrier to a UK space launch. Virgin Orbit has said in its statement this morning that there are some technical issues that will need to be resolved before launch. These in […]