SpaceX is laying off 10% of its work force

It seems that SpaceX may have some financial issues. It is laying off 10% of its work force or roughly 600 people. Following its raise of $273M recently, that would imply the problems are nontrivial in nature. Given this is as much Elon's personal space program as well as a commercial venture, I can see why it would be having financial issues. My main concern is that they are already running very, very lean by normal aerospace standards and are noted for chewing up its work force. This might make it worse.

Time will tell.

www.latimes.com...

a reply to: anzha

Maybe his girlfriend should get more involved and develop a magikal propulsion system?

Until then, I'm sure he has plenty of weed on hand, so at the end of the day it's not going to matter to him much...

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: anzha

Maybe his girlfriend should get more involved and develop a magikal propulsion system?

Until then, I'm sure he has plenty of weed on hand, so at the end of the day it's not going to matter to him much...

What kind of strain is that? He must be smoking some super potent, genetically modified, lab grown weed if it makes business and his company not matter to him much.

originally posted by: r0xor

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: anzha

Maybe his girlfriend should get more involved and develop a magikal propulsion system?

Until then, I'm sure he has plenty of weed on hand, so at the end of the day it's not going to matter to him much...

What kind of strain is that? He must be smoking some super potent, genetically modified, lab grown weed if it makes business and his company not matter to him much.

Seems it hasn't been for awhile now...

Personally, I would blame the girlfriend.

Sleep in the street and you wake up dirty...

I thought he had promise once and now I see him declining.

A pity.

a reply to: Lumenari
How's that? From what I've been following seems like business as usual for SpaceX -- recent unveiling of the assembled prototype 'Starship' and intentions to soon begin first tests all seem to be positive signs that things are going to plan. You're not one of those silly folk that think just because he took a single puff (without inhaling) of weed on a day-off doing an extremely relaxed interview, that he's somehow now a pothead with zero ambition and purpose... are you? Because I honestly thought you were a bit smarter than that.

The laying off of a small percentage of work-force is a shame, but probably good business management to ensure the overall mission goes ahead. At the end of the day SpaceX is far more than just a company to make money and keep people employed. Elon has been in many tight situations before and has proven extremely resilient in coming out on top each time. I admire and respect him all the more for it and hope he continues on as he's been doing.

a reply to: Navieko

Because my super power in life is recognizing failure.

Just because he is smart enough to keep dodging that doesn't make him a success.

Which is again, a pity.

He could have made a real difference. He's a genius.

We can talk about this in 5 years.

a reply to: Lumenari

Remember please that the entire US oil industry wants him to go broke as do many others in the Space Industry.

His businesses have suffered at the hands of spies and saboteurs with deep pockets and access to some Government Agencies.

Wait until the swamp is drained and get back to me.

P

a reply to: anzha

From your source.

SpaceX is offering a minimum of eight weeks’ pay and other benefits to laid-off workers, according to Shotwell’s email. The company will also provide assistance with career coaching, resume help and job searches.

That is not a bad way to lose your job. With that said, SpaceX would be a dream job.

Perhaps it is getting rid of the people who are working with carbon fiber or the satellite satellite (no not a typo) office in Seattle has been way over staffed. That or they were all people working specifically for the Iridium contract, which has now been completed.

There are multiple things that it could be, that would mean that there is no specific threat to the company, as their agile approach to space has always been different. They don't want to turn into ULA or the ESA, where their size prohibits them from changing directions and innovating.

Furthermore, they have about 20 non-R&D launches scheduled for this year alone, and 13 for 2020. They are not hurting for clients, so capital flow is not an issue.



Also, they are hiring a lot more as well. So it is just a shake up, and change of direction, not dire straights.
www.spacex.com...



I went back and counted, 362 open positions listed on their website (not including internships).
They are currently estimated to have ~7000 employees ( twitter.com... ), so 10% of that is ~700 employees being laid off.
From this is actually a net change of ~5% in employees. So it is not nearly the doom and gloom some people are assuming. Previously they also fired a couple senior people at their Redmond facility ( www.reuters.com... ).

It’s not surprising. Their development and manufacturing priorities have significantly changed. With Falcon 9 development ended and multiple reuse of the first stage now happening, they no longer have to crank out dozens of core stages and Merlin 1D engines. At their peak, they were producing 30 core stages and 200 Merlin engines per year. Now they maybe need to produce as few as 4 core stages and 40 Merlin engines per year. That simply requires a lot fewer factory staff.

You'd have to know which 10% to make anything of this. Is it production floor? Engineers? Middle management? They were running a lot of projects at the same time. Now they're down to a couple. On the engineering/mgmt side, Falcon IX design is basically fixed now. Falcon Heavy is up and running and is unlikely to see major redesign. The capsule work for Dragon 2 is pretty well finished. Those were all projects with development staffs that are more or less done with intensive development and design work. It's down to small fixes and BFR -related projects. They probably don't need all those bodies on BFR, massive project as it is.