Virgin Orbit Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ:VORB) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Dan Hart: I mean, clearly, tactically responsive launch is a key market area for us, and we’re going to work and continue to work closely with that customer. We see that it’s highly valued. We were rated really very, very high in our technical and natural capabilities of the system. And so we were very encouraged by that. Obviously, we’re disappointed in the loss. At this point, we’re €“ at this point, we don’t anticipate a protest, but we’re €“ instead, we’re working very closely with that customer to bring forward a solution, which we think will be a game changer for them.

Scott Deuschle: Okay. Make sense. Thank you so much.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question or comment comes from the line of Edison Yu from Deutsche Bank. Just a second please. Mr. Yu, your line is open.

Edison Yu: Thank you. Thank you for taking the questions. First one, to your latest take on pricing. I know you’re hoping to double launches next year. Do you have any sense of where pricing is trending for that activity?

Dan Hart: Well, I think we’ve got a really wide spector of different customers with different value propositions. You’ve got €“ we’re seeing stability in the commercial market, where, as I think we mentioned in the call, multi-launch agreements are being discussed. And what we’re seeing is the companies that are in operations are driving a good value for their customers. In addition, you’re seeing developments in the national security area and with our differentiated capability, we have not only a traditional launch, but as we just discussed, tactically responsive launch as well as inroads into hypersonic R&D and missile defense target areas, which other launches don’t have nearly as much of an opportunity for. And so those specialized government areas carry a higher value.

And as Brita mentioned in the call as well, there are different pedigrees of rockets and launch systems. And what we’re doing is we’re pursuing the higher class certifications for NASA as well as the Space Force to allow us to gain access to launching high-value payloads, which yield higher revenues as well. So that’s kind of how the overall landscape looks. And overall, we see a good value for our product.

Edison Yu: And a separate topic. Clearly, a lot of momentum on international. Any sense to provide some sort of range on what those opportunities could end up manifesting to be? I’m not going to try to pinpoint a specific number, but some sort of rough approximation of what those things could potentially be to one day. Thanks.

Dan Hart: Well, I can certainly describe €“ let me describe the overall approach, and I think that will give you some insights. And again, I mean, we’re seeing a huge amount of interest and a lot of agreements that we’ve started to enter into. And as well, I happen to be sitting in the UK right now, having just walked down what used to be a blank slab of cement at Newquay Airport is now an aerospace port. But our proposition is to come over and really be part of the space ecosystem and provide a sovereign launch capability. There are obviously commercial as well as government purposes at work. And it’s always the most powerful when those come together, commercial and government purposes. I mean, that’s how space grew up in the U.S. Our services vary from a campaign and doing a launch to something like what we’re doing here, where there’s ground equipment and some infrastructure associated with it, and we can sell and maintain infrastructure, ground equipment that services and fuels our rocket to an airplane that’s permanently stationed and supplying a full turnkey system.

And we’re having discussions with different nations on different levels of support that way. But obviously, we’re most focused on the latter. And those are the constituent pieces.