Rocket Lab CEO Peter Beck says Elon Musk is "just a guy," but he is concerned about his apparent disregard for safety.
Video / NZ Herald
Sir Richard Branson’s pain is Peter Beck’s gain.
Rocket Lab said in an SEC filing today that it was the successful bidder for Virgin Orbit assets, including the firm’s 144,000-square-foot headquarters and manufacturing centre in Long Beach, California.
Rocket Lab will pay US$16.1m for the assets, subject to the approvalof the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware, which is administering Virgin Orbit’s Chapter 11 case.
The two companies are neighbours in Long Beach, where Rocket Lab has its corporate headquarters and one of its manufacturing facilities.
Unfortunately for Succession fans, Beck will not get a private jet with the deal.
Rocket Lab’s bid did not include Virgin Orbit’s Boeing 747, which Sir Richard named “Cosmic Girl”.
The aircraft carried Virgin Orbit’s rocket, attached to its belly, to 10,000m before it fired. A series of failed launches - including a final effort in February this year - saw Virgin Orbit’s “Start Me Up” rocket fail to reach orbit and instead crash into the Atlantic Ocean, destroying its cargo of nine satellites in the process.
Virgin Orbit's "Cosmic Girl" Boeing 747 carried its LauncherOne rocket to 10,000m metres before it detached for ignition. Photo / Virgin Orbit
Stratolaunch, founded by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, picked up the modified plane for just US$17m.
Rocket Lab will not adopt any launch technology from Branson’s firm.
But Beck said taking over Virgin Orbit’s digs would help accelerate the development of his company’s much larger Neutron rocket, due for its first test flight next year.
“With Neutron’s design and development well-advanced, this transaction represents a capital expenditure savings opportunity to augment our production capability to bring Neutron to the launch pad quickly to serve our customers and their future success. Securing the lease to the Conant Facility adds to our existing presence in Long Beach and provides co-located engineering, manufacturing, and test capabilities for our Neutron team,” Beck said.
Virgin Orbit, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on April 4, after failing to raise more funding, officially ceased operations today.
The auction for its assets raised a total of US$36m.
The company was spun out of Branson’s space tourism venture, Virgin Galactic, in 2017. It went public in December 2021 at a US$3 billion valuation. Its market cap had fallen to US$60m by the time of its April 4 Chapter 11 filing.
Virgin Orbit charged clients US$20m per launch, or around three times the cost of Rocket Lab’s Electron. Beck’s company recently said it will charge US$50-US$55m per Neutron launch.
Branson reportedly lost US$1.8b on the venture. Forbes puts his wealth at US$4.7b.
Rocket Lab has made a series of acquisitions since its August 2020 Nasdaq listing, which raised US$777m - including SolAero, a New Mexico maker of solar components for space, for US$80m; Advanced Solutions, a Colorado-based maker of mission simulation systems, and navigation and control solutions, for US$40m.
