FILE – A Virgin Orbit Boeing 747-400 aircraft named Cosmic Girl prepares to land back at Mojave Air and Space Port in the desert north of Los Angeles Monday, May 25, 2020. Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is slashing 85% of its workforce, Friday, March 31, 2023, after running into problems with funding less than four months after a mission of the satellite launching company failed. (AP Photo/Matt Hartman)

Richard Branson’s Virgin Orbit is letting go of almost its entire work force with the satellite launch company finding it difficult to secure funding three months after a failed mission. The company, headquartered in Long Beach, California, will cut 675 jobs, about 85% of its workforce, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. In January, a mission by Virgin Orbit to launch the first satellites into orbit from Europe failed after a rocket’s upper stage prematurely shut down. It was a setback in the United Kingdom which had hoped that the launch from Cornwall in southwest England would mark the beginning of more commercial opportunities for the U.K. space industry