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posted by takyon on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:11PM   Printer-friendly
from the fired-into-space dept.

SpaceX to lay off 10% of its Workforce:

SpaceX, citing a need to get "leaner," said Friday it will lay off more than 10% of its roughly 6,000 employees.

[...] "To continue delivering for our customers and to succeed in developing interplanetary spacecraft and a global space-based internet, SpaceX must become a leaner company," the Hawthorne-based company said in a statement. "Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team."

[...] SpaceX makes most of its money from commercial and national security satellite launches, as well as two NASA contracts, one a multibillion-dollar deal to deliver cargo to the International Space Station and the other up to $2.6 billion to develop a capsule that will deliver astronauts to the space station. The first launch of that capsule, without a crew, is planned for February.

The Elon Musk-led company has even more ambitious — and expensive — plans. Musk has said SpaceX will conduct a "hopper test" of its Mars spaceship prototype as early as next month. The production version of that spaceship and its rocket system is expected to cost billions.

Earlier this month, privately held SpaceX said it raised about $273 million in equity and other securities in an offering that sought to raise about $500 million, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is worth $31 billion, according to Equidate, which tracks private-company valuations.

In May, Shotwell told CNBC that the company is profitable and has had "many years" of profitability.

There's an old adage about making something: "Good. Fast. Cheap. Pick two." Is SpaceX trying to pick all three?

Related: SpaceX CEO Elon Musk Fired Managers and Employees in June to Shake Up Starlink Project
Elon Musk's SpaceX Is Raising $500 Million in Funding; Now Valued at $30.5 Billion


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by NateMich on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:33PM (2 children)

    by NateMich (6662) on Saturday January 12 2019, @10:33PM (#785700)

    If a company this young is already cutting a certain, bean-counter defined percent of the workforce, then there is no other explanation than bad planning.
    A company really shouldn't consider this kind of option unless it is perfectly OK with the fallout of everyone there always being concerned that they are next, rather than putting everything they've got into doing the best job possible.
    The last thing you need in your corporate culture is CYA thinking, but that is the future going forward once a business starts acting this way.

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  • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Sunday January 13 2019, @09:16AM

    by bob_super (1357) on Sunday January 13 2019, @09:16AM (#785841)

    They just landed their 30th first stage.
    Maybe they're figuring out that they don't need as many people as before, because they now can launch over 20 times a year with only half a dozen new boosters per year.
    Two years ago, they needed to build as many first stages as they launched. I don't think BFR is ready to employ that many builders.

    While that's potentially not enough to justify 10%, they're also anticipating the softening launch market in the next couple years (their fault, for reliably killing the industry's backlog), that doesn't strike me as bad planning.

  • (Score: 2) by slap on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:28PM

    by slap (5764) on Sunday January 13 2019, @11:28PM (#786112)

    The Falcon 9 block 5 is the end of the development. Just like Boeing lays off their engineers when they finish a plane design, Spacex has made layoffs.