Space-technology company Vector Launch Inc. has filed for bankruptcy, blaming its demise on venture-capital backer Sequoia Capital’s decision not to provide additional funding for its development efforts.

Vector, along with its subsidiary Garvey Spacecraft Corp., filed for Chapter 11 protection in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Del., with a deal to sell its GalacticSky satellite software business to Lockheed Martin for $4.25 million.

The company had raised about $100 million in venture capital, with its Series A funding round led by Sequoia. It has roughly $1 million in secured debt and $4 million to $5 million of unsecured debt on its books.

Vector had been developing rockets, satellite launchers and satellite computing technology from facilities in California and Arizona, with more than 150 rocket scientists, engineers and other staff on payroll. Aside from the facilities, Vector’s assets include intellectual property, patents, rocket engines and a transporter-erector launcher.

The company’s fate was sealed when a member of the company’s board who had been appointed by Sequoia, Bill Coughran, resigned and said that Sequoia wouldn’t continue to fund Vector, according to Shaun Martin, the company’s restructuring chief. The company’s chief executive, James Cantrell, resigned a short time later, Martin said in a declaration with the court.

“The fallout from Sequoia’s decision and the CEO’s resignation spooked the investor community and doomed the debtors’ efforts to raise additional capital,” said Martin, of the advisory firm Winter Harbor LLC.

Sequoia’s withdrawal prompted Vector’s lenders to freeze its bank accounts, and the company ceased operations and terminated all of its employees in August.

“The company failed to meet strategic objectives and financial projections it outlined to the board,” said a Sequoia spokesperson. “We ultimately made the decision to part ways with the company based on its inability to achieve its proposed plans.”

Lockheed has agreed to purchase the company’s GalacticSky intellectual property for $4.25 million, subject to higher bids at auction.

Lockheed Martin agreed to purchase Vector Launch’s GalacticSky intellectual property for $4.25 million

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Zuma Press