Elon Musk is annoyed by the slow pace of development and production of the Raptor engine that will be used to power the Starship rocket. The richest man in the world even said SpaceX was threatened with bankruptcy because of this crisis.
Musk explained SpaceX's condition in an email sent to its employees. He said that if the Raptor engine production crisis is not resolved immediately, SpaceX is in danger of going bankrupt.
"The Raptor production crisis is far worse than it was known a few weeks ago," Musk wrote in an email.
"We run the risk of bankruptcy if we don't get to Starship flights at least once every two weeks next year."
Starship is a giant rocket developed by SpaceX to carry astronauts and cargo to the Moon and Mars. SpaceX is currently testing a prototype Starship for low-altitude flight at its facility center in Boca Chica, Texas.
SpaceX hopes to fly a prototype Starship into orbit as early as 2022. But to reach that height, Starship will need at least 39 Raptor engines.
SpaceX itself has just left two high-ranking company officials, one of whom oversees the development of the Raptor engine. After the departure of one of their bosses, SpaceX employees took a closer look at the production issues of the Raptor and found the crisis to be far more severe than previously reported.
It was so bad, Musk, who originally planned to take a long Thanksgiving holiday, immediately canceled his plans. After learning of the situation regarding the Raptor engine, Musk said he would jump right into the Raptor production line over the weekend.
He also urged all SpaceX employees to immediately go to SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, unless they have very important family matters or are physically unable to return to Hawthorne.
"We need everyone to be able to recover from what was, frankly, a disaster," Musk said.
While the Starship is designed for flights to the Moon and Mars, the rocket is also important to SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet business. Currently SpaceX has launched 1,800 Starlink satellites into orbit, and plans to launch 12,000 satellites to provide internet to all Earthlings.
But the satellite that SpaceX launched is the first version of the satellite. SpaceX is already planning to launch a second version of the satellite, or V2, but Musk says this satellite can only be launched effectively using a Starship rocket.
SpaceX has so far launched its Starlink satellite using a Falcon 9 rocket. Musk said the rocket didn't have the mass or volume needed to carry the second-generation Starlink satellite. Whereas according to Musk the V2 satellite will be a bigger source of revenue for the company.
Shortly after his internal email was reported by the media, Musk responded to the news by saying that the chances of going bankrupt are quite small, but not impossible if there is a severe global recession.
