In an email to SpaceX employees on Black Friday, CEO Elon Musk reportedly said that the company is in a "crisis" and faces a "genuine risk of bankruptcy" if production of the Raptor engine isn't ramped up. SpaceX has been on an upward swing this year and even crossed $100 billion in valuation in October. The company's Starlink venture, which aims to provide high-speed internet via a constellation of satellites, also came out of beta recently. SpaceX is also once again working with NASA on the Starship Lunar Lander after Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin lost its lawsuit against the US space agency.
The Raptor engine will be used to power SpaceX's next-generation Starship launch vehicle that the company expects to eventually take people to space. In the immediate future, it is being developed as a lunar lander that will return humans to the surface of the moon as part of NASA's Artemis program. However, the acute production issues of the Raptor engine now seemingly puts the future of the company in jeopardy.
As reported by Space Explored, Musk's email warned of dire consequences if the company failed to ramp up production of its Raptor engines to power the Starship next year. In the email, Musk said that SpaceX needs to launch Starship at least once every two weeks in 2022 to make it financially viable. For that, the company needs to increase its Raptor engine production significantly. Describing the production logjam as a "disaster," Musk urged company employees to work through the Thanksgiving weekend to meet the challenges, although its not immediately known as to how many actually went back to the factory floor during the holiday period.
Musk Promised To Work Through Thanksgiving Weekend
According to the email, Raptor production issues were "far more severe" than previously thought, and something that can be only mitigated by working extra hours over the next several weeks and months. Known for often working seven days a week, the email explains how Musk was canceling plans to take the weekend off to address the crisis facing the company. "I will be on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend," Musk reportedly said in the email.
It's not immediately clear if the Raptor production issues are really as dire as Musk is making it out or if the bankruptcy talk is simply hyperbole in true Elon Musk style. 2022 is likely to be a massive year for SpaceX and one that will possibly shape how things will turn out for the company over the rest of the decade. However, the immediacy of Musk's warning likely has more to do with keeping employees amped to meet a tight and ambitious schedule rather than an actual danger of SpaceX going belly up.
Source: Space Explored