Virgin Galactic Hit with Lawsuit Over Unpaid Invoices, Intellectual Property

The suit claims invoices for work performed totaling $26.4 million have not been paid, despite multiple attempts to resolve the dispute.

Mark Phelps

Thursday, March 28, 2024 at 05:01 PM ET

Verified

Virgin Galactic is in a legal battle with Boeing over intellectual property rights and alleged unpaid bills for work on a replacement for the "Eve" launch aircraft. [Courtesy: Virgin Galactic]

Key Takeaways:

Boeing, on behalf of its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, has sued Virgin Galactic for $26.4 million in alleged unpaid bills.
The lawsuit stems from a July 2022 contract for Aurora to design and build two new "mothership" aircraft for Virgin Galactic's suborbital space vehicles.
Aurora claims work stopped because the mothership Virgin Galactic wanted was not feasible within their budget and timeline.
Boeing and Aurora also allege Virgin Galactic misappropriated proprietary trade secrets, refusing to destroy technical specifications and composite construction data.

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Boeing, on behalf of its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, filed a lawsuit against Virgin Galactic for alleged unpaid bills and misappropriation of proprietary trade secrets.

According to the March 21 filing, as reported by Spacenews.com, Mojave, California-based Virgin Galactic contracted with Aurora in July 2022 to design and build two new “mothership” aircraft designed to launch Virgin’s suborbital space vehicles. The first was to be delivered in 2025, designed to replace Virgin Galactic’s VMS Eve launch platform.