[HN Gopher] Virgin Orbit to lay off 85 percent of staff, freeze ...
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       Virgin Orbit to lay off 85 percent of staff, freeze operations
        
       Author : gamblor956
       Score  : 69 points
       Date   : 2023-03-31 17:27 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.washingtonpost.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.washingtonpost.com)
        
       | Diederich wrote:
       | That's a damn shame.
       | 
       | We definitely need more rather than less competition in 'new
       | space'.
        
         | Eisenstein wrote:
         | Why? Sending stuff into space isn't something I want an
         | incompetent company doing. You can do a lot of damage in a lot
         | of ways.
        
           | thom wrote:
           | SpaceX's first three launches were failures. I think the
           | world is probably better for them not folding after the
           | first.
        
             | pie420 wrote:
             | and Virgin Galactic's first 50 launches were failures and
             | VG's first 20 years of existence were a colossal failure.
             | Maybe if a company can't make things work after two
             | decades, it should be dissolved? Or should we let them
             | exist in a malaise of failure for another decade?
        
         | stametseater wrote:
         | There's already a ton:
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_private_spaceflight_co...
         | 
         | Note that Virgin Orbit's niche (small plane-launched rockets
         | into unusual orbits) is already served by the Pegasus rocket,
         | previously by Orbital Sciences and now owned by Northrop.
         | There's doesn't seem to be much demand for it though.
        
       | bork1 wrote:
       | Link without paywall:
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20230331173423/https://www.washi...
        
       | JumpCrisscross wrote:
       | SpaceX's secret sauce was mass manufacturing. Not building a
       | rocket, but building a system that builds rockets. I remember,
       | over a decade ago, looking at these shops and realising the
       | specialty plane Virgin's launch systems relied on were being
       | built as works of art. Falcons, on the other hand, were not. Even
       | with the company's eye on reuse.
        
       | chrisbolt wrote:
       | Dupe: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35383488
        
       | dave333 wrote:
       | Long term Virgin Orbit probably did itself a favor with the
       | launch failure - better a fast end than a slow strangulation by
       | not being competitive with reusable rockets.
        
       | sub7 wrote:
       | Oops a Chamath SPAC turned out to be just a vehicle to fleece
       | retail?
       | 
       | It is truly amazing what you can legally get away with
        
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       (page generated 2023-03-31 23:02 UTC)