Listen: Musk Says Rocket Engine Issues Threaten to Bankrupt SpaceX
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On a day when a large share of Americans seek to recover from Thanksgiving excess, Elon Musk effectively ordered his employees back to their posts in Hawthorne, California, in order to address a \\u201cdisaster\\u201d related to the spaceflight company\\u2019s new rocketship engine.
According to the email sent to SpaceX employees on Black Friday \\u2014 obtained by the Verge \\u2014 the company faces a \\u201cgenuine risk of bankruptcy\\u201d if the matter isn\\u2019t resolved.
The problem stems from the Raptor, the methane engine that will power the company\\u2019s next-generation Starship spacecraft to the moon and beyond.
Musk wrote that SpaceX officials looked into the engine following the departure of former senior officials, and found that issues with its production were much more severe than previously thought. He didn\\u2019t disclose specifics about the problems, but he indicated that they could mean that Raptor production won\\u2019t be high enough to launch the company\\u2019s larger, next-generation Starlink communications satellites on Starships at the necessary pace \\u2014 at least one every two weeks in 2022, Musk wrote.
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