In an email to SpaceX employees, Elon Musk expressed his concern. In the message he sent, Musk was said to be angry at the lack of progress in developing the Raptor engine that drives the Starship rocket.
– wrote that the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it was a few weeks ago.
The email was sent on Friday and was obtained from the news site CNBC.
The danger of life
bankruptcy risk
Musk founded the space company SpaceX in 2002. And in April, the company was awarded a billion-dollar contract with the US space agency NASA, so everything was ready to fulfill the dream of sending humans to both Mars and the Moon.
Now, however, it appears that Musk’s long-held dream may be fading away.
After the email, Musk came out and said the company faces a real risk of bankruptcy, if it can’t achieve a spacecraft flight rate of at least one every two weeks in 2022.
Japanese billionaire first tourist to the moon with SpaceX
Every man on board
The Starship, a prototype of the rocket that Musk dreamed of taking humans into space, has already completed several short test flights.
To advance to orbital launches, rocket prototypes need up to 39 Raptor engines. It requires a lot of production.
“We all need a man on board to get out of what is considered a disaster, quite frankly,” Musk wrote in the email.
On November 17, Musk said it was hoped that SpaceX would launch its first orbital spaceflight in January or February 2022.
The billionaire has also repeatedly stated that the Raptor engine is the most difficult part of the Starship to produce. A Stareship production and testing facility has been added to Boca Chica, Texas.
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