Hello and welcome back to Max Q! Last week wasn’t the most successful for spaceflight missions. We’ll get into that a bit more below.
In this issue:
First up, a botched launch from Virgin Orbit…
…followed by one from ABL Space Systems
News from Rocket Lab, World View and more
After Virgin Orbit’s launch failure last Monday, during which the mission experienced an “anomaly” that prevented the rocket from reaching orbit, I went back over the company’s financials — and things aren’t looking good.
For Virgin Orbit, this year has likely been completely turned on its head. The company was aiming for three launches this year, but everything will remain grounded until the cause of the anomaly has been identified and resolved. It’s unclear how long that will take, but likely at least three months. Add this delay to Virgin’s dw …