While more established players like Elon Musk's SpaceX and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin spend billions on new, bigger rockets, rocket startup Astra Space, satellite imagery firm Planet Labs and privately held engine maker Ursa Major recently laid off workers to cut costs. Those struggles follow the April bankruptcy filing by satellite launch firm Virgin Orbit, which was owned by billionaire Richard Branson. Among the factors cited by the company were volatile capital markets and Branson's reluctance to invest further.