SpaceX cuts 10 percent of employees to become a slimmer company
SpaceX will add up to 10 percent of the workforce, the company said Friday night. The company characterized the work reductions as "a strategic fit," designed to ensure it is positioned for long-term success.
They were announced to employees on Friday in an email by company president and CEO Gwynne Shotwell. The company has a workforce of more than 6,000 employees.
"To continue to deliver to our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based Internet, SpaceX must become a slimmer company," a company manager said in a statement.
"Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, has gone bankrupt with other organizations," he continued. "This means that we need to share ways with some talented and hard-working members of our team. We are grateful for everything they have achieved and their commitment to SpaceX's mission. This action is taken only because of the extraordinarily difficult challenges that come, and otherwise this would not be necessary. "
This move comes several weeks after SpaceX attempted to raise up to $ 750 million from a loan, but decided to cut that amount to $ 250 million due to less favorable terms than expected.
Money for New Projects
Company employees have repeatedly said that SpaceX is profitable thanks to a mix of revenue from commercial launch contracts, NASA's Development Fund and US Air Force launch prices. SpaceX launched its Falcon 9 rocket 20 times in 201[ads1]8, and flew its Falcon Heavy rocket for the first time. By developing a reusable first stage, the company may have the most innovative and cost-effective booster in the world.
But SpaceX also performs the costly development of a satellite internet system, Starlink, as well as a next-generation rocket, Super Heavy, and spacecraft, Starship, designed to send humans to MaRs. These projects both have several years from providing a significant revenue stream.
SpaceX commits these cuts as it moves into a central year, as it will likely carry out the first launch of people in the path of a private company through NASA's commercial crew program, deploy its first set of Starlink satellites, and launch preliminary tests of the Starship vehicle.
An airline source suggested that the size and timing of Friday's cuts may indicate a desire by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to cut costs and cut some of his lower results. By becoming leaner, the company will have more money to invest in its ambitious development projects.
Ironically, SpaceX's development of the low-cost Falcon 9 rocket has partly driven other launch providers in the United States, including the United Launch Alliance, as well as state-sponsored companies around the world to slash costs and employees to compete for commercial launch contracts.
