Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

On November 8, Virgin Galaxy, a space tourism company, said on Tuesday that it would cut jobs and cut costs in order to save resources for the development of a new generation of suborbital spacecraft.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Virgin Galactic announced a "strategic restructuring of the company's resources and plans for related layoffs" to focus on the development of the company's highly anticipated Delta class-class spacecraft.

Virgin Galactic, which did not disclose details such as the number of layoffs, said it was still notifying individual employees separately and would provide more information in an earnings call on Wednesday local time.

Virgin Galactic said its facilities would be closed for the rest of the week. In February, Virgin Galactic said in its annual report to the Securities and Exchange Commission that it had 1166 employees by the end of 2022.

Michael Colglazier, chief executive of Virgin Galactic, said in a memo to employees that layoffs and other spending cuts were designed to save the company money so that it could focus on developing Delta-class spaceships. Delta-class spacecraft fly at a higher frequency and at lower cost than the existing VSS Unity spacecraft II.

Kograzier also mentioned the market "uncertainty" caused by high interest rates. This uncertainty "greatly reduces access to capital in the short term," he said.

"Delta-class spacecraft are powerful economic engines," he wrote. "for these facilities to be operational, we need to consolidate our financial position and reduce our dependence on unpredictable capital markets."We will achieve this goal, but we need to refocus resources on the development of Delta-class spacecraft and streamline work outside the Delta project."

Virgin Galactic reported that it had $980 million in cash and equivalents at the end of the second quarter, while the company reported a net loss of $134.4 million over the same period. Virgin Galactic did not disclose the estimated cost of developing the Delta-class spacecraft, but said the new spacecraft would be operational in 2026. The company says the revenue it can get from VSS Unity SpaceShip2 is limited because it can only carry up to four customers a month.

Virgin Galactic has taken other measures to reduce operating costs before. In May, the company said it would delay production of new aircraft carrying Delta-class spacecraft by about a year, and concluded that the VMS Eve aircraft currently used to carry VSS Unity spacecraft 2 could also be used for Delta-class spacecraft test flights. Before the introduction of the Delta-class spacecraft, the company almost abandoned plans to put another spaceship, the VSS Imagine, into service.

In the memo, Kograzier did not say what impact the layoffs would have on the operation of VSS Unity SpaceShip2. On November 2, Virgin Galactic completed the Galaxy 5 mission, carrying two researchers and a private astronaut into suborbital space. This is the company's fifth commercial mission and the last planned flight of the year, as both the spacecraft and carrier aircraft enter the annual maintenance period. Virgin Galaxy said after completing the Galaxy 5 mission that flights would resume in January next year.

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