SAN FRANCISCO: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, in an email to his company’s employees, asked them to work over the weekend on SpaceX’s Raptor engine because the company faces a “real risk of bankruptcy” unless it speeds up production.
In the email, Musk revealed that the company faces a “real risk of bankruptcy” if production does not ramp up to support a high flight rate of the company’s new Starship rocket next year, reports The Verge.
“Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is far worse than it appeared a few weeks ago. As we dug into the issues following the departure of previous senior management, they unfortunately turned out to be well more serious than what was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this,” Musk reportedly wrote.
Raptor’s engine is an essential component of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one day carry goods and people to the moon and Mars.
Musk also revealed that instead of taking the weekend off as planned, he was going to work on the Raptor all night and over the weekend. He then asked employees without “critical family issues” to work as well, saying it was time everyone was on deck.
“The consequences for SpaceX if we can’t make enough reliable Raptors is that we can’t fly Starship, which means we can’t fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon doesn’t have the volume *or* the mass in orbit needed for the V2 satellite) The V1 satellite itself is financially weak, while V2 is strong,” Musk added.
Earlier this month, Musk said he expected Starship to launch into orbit for the first time as early as January, provided regulatory approvals were granted by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). SpaceX has raised billions of dollars in funding over the past few years for both Starship and its Starlink satellite internet project.
