Firefly Aerospace Purchases Remaining Virgin Orbit Assets

Firefly Aerospace has reached an agreement to acquire the remaining assets of Virgin Orbit as part of Virgin Orbit's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings.

In filings submitted on June 15 to the federal bankruptcy court overseeing the Chapter 11 case, representatives from both companies stated that Firefly Aerospace would purchase the assets, known as Segment 5, for a total of $3.8 million.

Segment 5 comprises the inventory located at Virgin Orbit's two production facilities in Long Beach, California. This includes engines and other components that were either built or in production for Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne vehicles, as well as two engines stored at a test site in Mojave, California.

During the bankruptcy auction held on May 22, most of Virgin Orbit's assets were sold. Stratolaunch acquired the company's Boeing 747 and related equipment, Rocket Lab purchased the main production facility in Long Beach, Launcher acquired the Mojave test site, and a liquidation company, Inliper Acquisition LLC, bought the machinery and equipment from a second Long Beach facility. 

Following the auction, negotiations continued with various parties, ultimately leading to Firefly Aerospace's $3.8 million offer for the inventory assets. The filings did not disclose the identities of the other parties involved in the discussions.

Firefly Aerospace's released a statment on the evening of June 16 saying.

"Firefly strategically bid and purchased the Virgin Orbit inventory for the significant cost savings on common off-the-shelf components that we use in our product lines, and the benefit of eliminated supply chain lead-times associated with critical flight components...Firefly will not be utilizing all of the inventory and plans to provide additional information to parties who may be interested in purchasing.”

Firefly is currently developing its own launch vehicle, Alpha, which has undergone two successful flights and is slated for a third launch in the near future in partnership with the U.S. Space Force. Firefly is also working on lunar landers named Blue Ghost and an orbital transfer vehicle called the Space Utility Vehicle.