“While we have taken great efforts to address our financial position and secure additional financing, we ultimately must do what is best for the business,” Virgin Orbit’s chief executive,

Dan Hart,

said in a statement.

Virgin Orbit, which filed for chapter 11 with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the District of Delaware, said it received a $31.6 million commitment from Virgin Investments Ltd. in the form of so-called debtor-in-possession financing. The company said that financing would help it fund its operations while it finds a buyer.

The bankruptcy filing deals a blow to Mr. Branson’s ambition to compete in the rapidly growing market for commercial-satellite launches. Last week, the six-year-old company said it was slashing its head count by about 675 employees in an effort to reduce costs.

Mr. Branson worked on his space ambitions while his closely held Virgin Group—a business empire that includes airlines and cruise ships—took a hit during the Covid-19 pandemic shutdowns and travel restrictions. 

Virgin Orbit went public by combining with a U.S.-listed blank-check company in December 2021, a deal that valued the business at more than $3 billion. Virgin Group and Mubadala Investment Co., a United Arab Emirates sovereign-wealth fund, earlier invested around $1 billion in the business.

It is the latest company that took this route to the public markets to file for bankruptcy. The grocery courier

Boxed Inc.

said on Sunday it filed for bankruptcy. It had completed its merger with a special-purpose acquisition company in the same month and year as Virgin Orbit. SPACs are shell firms that raise money from investors and list on a stock exchange to merge with a private company, bringing it public. 

Virgin Orbit said in a regulatory filing this week that it hadn’t generated positive cash flows or enough revenues to fund its operations. It also said it expects to report $1 billion in accumulated losses as of the end of 2022.

Write to Dave Sebastian at dave.sebastian@wsj.com