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Elon Musk’s Leaked SpaceX Email Warns Of ‘Risk Of Bankruptcy’ Over Flight Delay
By Alexa Heah, 01 Dec 2021
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Image via L Galbraith / Shutterstock.com
In a leaked email obtained by CNBC, SpaceX founder Elon Musk expressed his disapproval at how long the firm has taken to develop the Raptor engines to power its Starship rocket.
The outspoken leader even warned of a “risk of bankruptcy” should the company’s timeline not speed up.
“The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago. We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year,” Musk wrote.
SpaceX hopes to use its giant Starship rocket to launch both cargo and people to missions on the moon and Mars. So far, engineers at the firm have run short test flights at its facility in southern Texas, though they are nowhere near enough that engines have been manufactured for actual orbital launches to take place.
This note could explain the departure of former Vice President of Propulsion Will Heltsley, who left the company last month. Musk said that he had been looking into the Raptor program since then, and has uncovered that the circumstances are “far more severe” than he initially thought.
The email, which was written before Thanksgiving, showed that Musk had originally planned to take the holiday off, but changed his mind and said he would be personally working on the engine production line due to the dire situation.
“We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster,” he is reported to have said.
Just a few weeks ago on November 17, Musk said that SpaceX would “hopefully launch” its first Starship flight in January or February next year, though the timeline is still dependent on approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
However, with the program now exposed to be way behind schedule, the firm’s first launch could still be a long way out.
[via CNBC, cover image via L Galbraith / Shutterstock.com]
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