Rocket Lab, the seasoned small-rocket firm whose headquarters is lower than a mile from Virgin Orbit’s, received the bankrupt rocket firm’s main manufacturing web site for $16 million throughout an public sale held on Monday, in keeping with a courtroom submitting disclosing the outcomes of a weeks-long Chapter 11 bid course of.

The buy settlement consists of equipment and tools that had been used to fabricate Virgin Orbit’s flagship LauncherOne rockets, which air-launched from the stomach of a modified Boeing 747. It is topic to the chapter courtroom’s approval throughout a listening to scheduled for Wednesday.

In an announcement thanking its staff, buyers and different stakeholders, Virgin Orbit stated it can promote its property to a complete of 4 profitable bidders and stop operations.

“The combined total proceeds were determined by a rigorous and competitive auction which maximizes value for the estate and minimizes the remaining duration of the Company’s restructuring,” the assertion stated. “Virgin Orbit’s legacy in the space industry will forever be remembered.”

Founded by billionaire Branson to ship small satellites into house, Virgin Orbit laid off 85% of its some 750 staff in March and filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in early April after the corporate struggled to safe long-term funding following a failed launch from Britain in January.

Most of the roughly 100 staff who remained on the firm by means of the chapter proceedings might be laid off inside the subsequent week, an individual conversant in the corporate’s ultimate plans stated.

Virgin Orbit additionally plans to promote its plane property, together with the modified Boeing 747 “Cosmic Girl” service plane, to hypersonics agency Stratolaunch for $17 million, the submitting stated. Stratolaunch had been a chosen stalking horse bidder for these property earlier in May.

Virgin Orbit’s main launch web site in California’s Mojave Desert might be bought to rocket engine and spacecraft startup Launcher Inc. A spokeswoman for Vast Space, an area station agency backed by cryptocurrency billionaire Jed McCaleb that acquired Launcher earlier this yr, declined to remark as a result of the deal has not but closed.

This month, Virgin Orbit stated it had acquired greater than 30 letters of curiosity from potential bidders for its property, a better quantity than the corporate anticipated, an individual conversant in the method advised Reuters on the time.

Tuesday’s submitting stated Virgin Orbit determined “not to continue the Auction” concerning the corporate’s stock of LauncherOne rocket engines, the core of its launch enterprise.

“No Successful Bidder or Next-Highest Bidder has been selected for such Assets at this time,” the submitting stated. Discussions on what to do with the rocket engines are ongoing, a spokeswoman stated.