Item 2.02 Results of Operations and Financial Condition
Update to Previous Announcement
On February 19, 2009, Orbital Sciences Corporation issued an earnings release reporting its fourth quarter and full year 2008 financial results. Subsequently, on February 24, 2009, Orbital's Taurus XL rocket, which was carrying a satellite that the company built for NASA, experienced a launch failure and the satellite was destroyed. As a result of the launch failure, Orbital will not receive a $5.3 million mission success incentive that the company had expected to earn and the company will incur unanticipated costs to investigate the cause of the incident.
Although this incident occurred subsequent to December 31, 2008, the company determined that it should reflect the accounting impact of this event in its 2008 financial statements. As a result, Orbital revised its fourth quarter and full year 2008 financial results to include a $5.6 million adjustment to reduce revenue and operating profit on the Taurus contract. Orbital's financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2008 that were filed in its Annual Report on Form 10-K on March 2, 2009 include the accounting impact of the above-described event. The following table presents summary information for the previously announced and as filed financial results for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2008.