‘SpaceAxe’ At Space X: Elon Musk’s Firm To Reduce Workforce By 10 Per Cent; Cites ‘Very Difficult Challenges Ahead’

Space X will be reducing its workforce by about 10 per cent, the Deccan Chronicle reports. The Elon Musk-led rocket company will “part ways” with over 6,000 employees due to “extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead,” the company said on Friday.

A spokesperson said in an email, “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. Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organisations”.

Reuters had reported in November that in June, Elon Musk had fired least seven people from the senior management team due to disagreements over the pace of development of a SpaceX satellite launch project as well as testing of the Starlink satellites.

The Starlink project of SpaceX is fighting against OneWeb and Canada’s Telesat to become the first company to put the new satellite-based internet service into the market. During the shakeup in management, Musk brought in new managers into the California headquarters, replacing the fired managers in Seattle.

Recently, a SpaceX rocket was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida. It was SpaceX’s first US national security space mission as the missile carried a US Military navigation satellite along it.

Earlier, the California-based rocket company had outlined its plans for a Mars trip in 2022, which will be followed by a human-crewed mission to the planet two years later.

Tesla Inc., Elon Musk’s electric car company in June, had said that it was letting go of nine per cent of its workforce and removed several thousands of jobs across its company as a cost reduction measure.