SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a cautionary note to employees Friday that warned of bankruptcy due to the sluggish development of rocket engines. Musk wants "a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year."
Musk said lagging engine production was holding up Starship and Starlink progress in a company-wide memo obtained by CNBC. He said the engine shortage creates a “genuine risk of bankruptcy” since Raptor engines power the company’s Starship rockets.
“We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster," the memo reads.
Musk is pushing for increased engine output since each rocket flight could require as many as 39 Raptor engines, according to the CNBC report.
The SpaceX warnings echo earlier struggles that Musk faced with the other company he founded and nurtured along, Tesla, Inc., where he used the same “b” word.
Past media interviews revealed Tesla was only a month away from bankruptcy when Musk pushed for ramped up production of the Model 3 vehicle between 2017 and 2019. Back then Musk also warned of impending financial disaster if Tesla didn’t step it up.
On its website, SpaceX touts that it was founded in 2002 by Musk to “revolutionize space technology,” by designing, manufacturing and launching advanced rockets and spacecraft.
