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At Virgin Orbit, it never should’ve come to a staff furlough



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Last night, CNBC broke the bombshell news that Virgin Orbit was pausing operations for at least a week while it looked for funding to support the business. As part of that pause, company executives reportedly told staff in an all-hands meeting that they were being furloughed — and that it would be unpaid.
The news isn’t exactly a surprise. Virgin Orbit’s financial woes have been discussed and dissected by the media for months — including here at TechCrunch — with many wondering how the company could sustainably continue operations.
The first misstep came during the company’s entrance on the public markets via a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). That transaction, which Virgin Orbit said would yield as much as $383 million in SPAC proceeds, turned out to yield just $68 million from the SPAC (and $228 million overal …

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