Posts: 22,262
Threads: 2,504
Joined: May 2025
Everyone has days like this, I guess:
Elon Musk is angry with the lack of progress SpaceX has made in developing the Raptor engines that power its Starship rocket.
He described a dire situation the day after Thanksgiving in a companywide email, a copy of which was obtained by CNBC.
“The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,” Musk wrote.
“We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year,”
 miley-shocked003:
Musk wrote in the email that he planned to take the long Thanksgiving holiday off. But, after discovering the Raptor situation, Musk said he would personally work on the engine production line through Friday night and into the weekend.
“We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster,” Musk wrote.
Honestly, I’m pulling for them…if not necessarily for their somewhat… erratic CEO.
Posts: 33,855
Threads: 2,463
Joined: Apr 2025
Reputation:
0
Answer/clarification from EM:
'If a severe global recession were to dry up capital availability / liquidity while SpaceX was losing billions on Starlink & Starship, then bankruptcy, while still unlikely, is not impossible.
GM & Chrysler went BK last recession.
“Only the paranoid survive.” – Grove'
And his answer to 'How's uh...the raptor thing going?' was:
'It’s getting fixed'
Posts: 33,855
Threads: 2,463
Joined: Apr 2025
Reputation:
0
And ...
'The magnitude of the Starship program is not widely appreciated. It is designed to extend life to Mars (and the moon), which requires ~1000 times more payload to orbit than all current Earth rockets combined.'
Posts: 54,603
Threads: 1,937
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
1
As the world’s richest private citizen, he should be able to keep things moving without going bankrupt.
Posts: 24,633
Threads: 1,093
Joined: May 2025
Speedy wrote:
As the world’s richest private citizen, he should be able to keep things moving without going bankrupt.
It's not in a bank account... it's in the stocks of SpaceX and Tesla. He can't write a check against them...
He is correct that if there is a down-turn such that capital is not forthcoming from "the usual sources", then they're in big trouble... Starship may end up the single most ambitious engineering project of the 21st century.
Posts: 10,234
Threads: 213
Joined: May 2025
I didn't get pessimism at all from that. He is saying that starlink is dependent on a functioning starship, so success of the starship is crucial to all of SpaceX. Their projects are interdependent, and it helps for people to know that.
He's a risk taker. Huge risk, huge payoff. It's not a gamble, because he can affect the outcome.
Posts: 33,855
Threads: 2,463
Joined: Apr 2025
Reputation:
0
kj wrote:
I didn't get pessimism at all from that. He is saying that starlink is dependent on a functioning starship, so success of the starship is crucial to all of SpaceX. Their projects are interdependent, and it helps for people to know that.
He's a risk taker. Huge risk, huge payoff. It's not a gamble, because he can affect the outcome.
He's also providing context for the SpaceX teams. I've seen personalities delay projects by weeks or months.
When 'failure is not an option' is now shared, 'suddenly' all sorts of issues disappear.
Posts: 31,030
Threads: 2,688
Joined: May 2025
Speedy wrote:
As the world’s richest private citizen, he should be able to keep things moving without going bankrupt.
His wealth is all tied up in hopes and dreams.
Posts: 54,603
Threads: 1,937
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
1
mrbigstuff wrote:
[quote=Speedy]
As the world’s richest private citizen, he should be able to keep things moving without going bankrupt.
His wealth is all tied up in hopes and dreams.
My wealth is also tied up in his hopes and dreams so I hope his bankruptcy talk was just talk.
Posts: 23,016
Threads: 575
Joined: May 2025
Reputation:
2
Meh, it can wait til Monday at least.
|
