On Monday night Virgin Orbit's attempt to launch a rocket from the United Kingdom failed after a problem with the rocket's second-stage engine.

The US-based launch company did not provide any additional details about the cause of the accident, which led to the loss of nine small satellites on board. In the wake of the failure, officials sought to put a brave face on the mission's outcome and Virgin Orbit's future.

"We will work tirelessly to understand the nature of the failure, make corrective actions, and return to orbit as soon as we have completed a full investigation and mission assurance process," Dan Hart, Virgin Orbit's chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement.

However, the confident words belie a reality that the financial road ahead for Virgin Orbit is a very, very difficult one.

A brief history of Virgin Orbit

Virgin Orbit started as an idea in 2011 by Sir Richard Branson as an offshoot of his Virgin Galactic space business, with the goal of fully utilizing the White Knight aircraft. Eventually, it was decided the company, formally created in 2017, would use its own aircraft, a modified Boeing 747-400 named Cosmic Girl, as a platform from which to drop and launch small rockets.

Lacking revenue of its own, Virgin Orbit was funded for most of a decade by the Virgin Group, the multinational company that owns and operates Branson's various businesses, as well as an Emirati state-owned holding company, Mubadala Investment Company.

Independent estimates suggest that, over that time, Virgin Orbit spent as much as $1 billion to develop and test its LauncherOne rocket and air-launch system. The company made its first successful launch in January 2021 and has averaged one mission every six months since then.

An obvious question is this: With such high development costs and a low cadence for a rocket that sells for $12 million per launch, how can Virgin Orbit be financially sustainable?

In 2021 the company answered its short-term cash needs by going public, merging with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). However, funds raised from this merger were far less than anticipated. Upon announcing its intent to go public, Virgin Orbit said it anticipated raising $383 million from the proceeds of the SPAC transaction; however, it raised just $68 million from this process and instead had to turn to private investments for an additional $160 million to keep operating.