Is SpaceX facing production issues with its Raptor engine line for its Starship? That’s what an apparently obtained email details, reportedly sent to employees by CEO Elon Musk, as shared by Space Explored.
The email from Musk to employees says the Raptor production line crisis is now “much worse than it had seemed a few weeks ago,” and is “far more severe” than expected.
Musk details how he was about to take Thanksgiving weekend off, his first “in a long time,” but instead, the SpaceX CEO said he would spend his holiday “on the Raptor line all night and through the weekend.” Musk is known for working long hours and nights, even sleeping on factory floors at Tesla.
The SpaceX leader emphasized the company needed “all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster,” explains the email. All employees were asked to head back to the Hawthorne headquarters in California, unless they had “critical family matters” or were physically incapable of heading back to work.
Musk dives into the consequences for SpaceX, noting if there are not “enough reliable Raptors made is that we then can’t fly Starship, which means we then can’t fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon has neither the volume nor the mass to orbit needed for satellite V2). Satellite V1, by itself, is financially weak, while V2 is strong,” explains the email.
As for SpaceX Starlink terminals, the company is ramping up production to “several million units per year”, expected to cost “massive capital”, on the assumption the second-gen V2 satellite will be in orbit to handle bandwidth demand, says Musk. “These terminals will be useless otherwise,” explains the email exclusively obtained by Space Explored.
Lastly, Musk closes with the real kicker—SpaceX could face a “genuine risk of bankruptcy if we can’t achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year,” before signing off his email.
Now, it’s unclear if the email is true or not, as we have yet to see a corroborated report on the SpaceX raptor engine “crisis”, but the magnitude of the message is clear: all hands on deck or we could face death. The email reads like a Steve Jobs reality distortion field call-to-action, to possibly rally the troops at SpaceX, ahead of the company’s first expected orbital flight in early 2022.
We reached out to Space Explored to view a copy of the Elon Musk email and will report back.
Update: According to Sidney Chambers (@ArtfulTakedown), in a Twitter reply to Tesla North, she has casted doubt on this apparent email:
Sorry.. where did you find this alleged email? And why would a test flight every 2 weeks be beneficial?
— Sid Chambers, PhD 🇺🇦 (@ArtfulTakedown) November 30, 2021
Update 2: CNBC’s Michael Sheetz has obtained a copy of the email from Musk, essentially corroborating the Space Explored report.
For what it's worth at this late stage lol, I have confirmed with my own sources that this email is real.
The email is viewed more as a rally the troops type email. A source told me: "I wouldn’t worry. We are not going away." https://t.co/HA4uAfl3I1
— Sawyer Merritt 📈🚀 (@SawyerMerritt) November 30, 2021
Update Nov. 30: When asked about the “raptor thing”…Musk replied, “it’s getting fixed”.
It’s getting fixed
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 30, 2021
