Elon Musk has issued a warning about the possibility of his space exploration company, SpaceX, going out of business. In a recent email, the technology entrepreneur cautioned SpaceX staff that the firm is in the midst of a serious crisis with its production efforts for the new Raptor engine. According to Musk, the engine will be used to power the company’s Starship launch vehicle, which he describes as a “game-changer” in the space-launch sector.
Known as Starship, it is a fully reusable spaceship that will be used to launch future trips to Mars and the Moon for SpaceX. According to Musk’s tweet, the launch vehicle will have to carry “1000 times more payload than all existing Earth rockets combined” in order to accomplish this. The spacecraft will be propelled into orbit by Raptor engines during its mission.
It appears that SpaceX has encountered a significant stumbling block in the development of the Raptor engine. In an email written to SpaceX staff, which was obtained by The Verge, Musk advises that everyone in the firm labour over the weekends in order to solve this challenge. Musk describes the issue as a “crisis,” and he warns that if it is not resolved soon, SpaceX may be forced to file for bankruptcy.
While the email claims that the situation is significant, this is not the case. Musk reacted to a tweet on the subject with a more hopeful timescale for when the firm will be faced with a similar situation. Musk comments in a tweet that the possibility of SpaceX going bankrupt is “not inconceivable,” however it is extremely unlikely. It is only in the event of a “serious global recession” and a “drying up” of SpaceX’s cash availability or liquidity, he adds, that his beloved space company will be forced to deal with such a situation.
With SpaceX spending “billions” on Starlink and Starship, Musk’s concern is only logical given the amount of money the company has invested. During the course of spending all of that money, the corporation will not be able to lose its source of cash flow for any cause. SpaceX might take a significant blow if the economy goes into recession, which has already begun to be feared as a result of the continuing flu outbreak.
GM and Chrysler went bankrupt during the last recession, as Musk points out in his tweet, and he encourages everyone to remember this. After that, he concludes his tweet with a statement from Grove that reads, “Only the paranoid survive.” Considering Musk’s previous statements, it is quite probable that SpaceX will get through this process quickly.
In response to another tweet, Musk provided some further insight on the situation. He revealed that the company’s attempts to build Starship are hampered by a major bottleneck in the manufacture of Raptors. In addition, the fact that the spaceship will not be able to create any cash flow for the corporation until it takes to the skies puts the company’s investments at significant risk until it takes off.
