SpaceX: production problems of Raptor engines, Elon Musk evokes a risk of bankruptcy Bulk Solids Handling – Bulk Solids Handling

To reduce the costs of space missions, it is necessary to be able to reuse the equipment and to be able to ensure a large number of shots at a sustained rate. For businessman Elon Musk, this may be where the shoe pinches for his interplanetary rocket project Starship and the company that supports the initiative, SpaceX .

In an email addressed to the employees of the company, he mentioned a crisis in production of Raptor engines which worsens and which could lead to a real risk of bankruptcy for SpaceX if the pace of a bi-weekly Starship rocket launch cannot be sustained next year.

With some 39 engines Raptor necessary, we will have to hold a high production rate. Part of the problem Elon Musk mentioned seems to emerge with the departure of several SpaceX officials, including one in charge of propulsion development, for lack of progress.

The billionaire called all employees who can to be present at Hawthorne (the companys head office) to avoid what currently presents itself as a disaster , and this during the extended (and family) weekend of Thanksgiving, for which he himself had planned to take a little rest.

If the production of Raptor engines does not is not sufficient, it will not be possible to carry out the Starship missions but also to carry out the deployment of the Starlink v2 network of satellites providing access to the Internet, for which the launchers Falcon 9 will not be powerful enough.

Elon Musk presents Starlink v2 as the real cornerstone of the economic model of satellite internet access, the current network v1 having above all to validate the technologies and create a customer base by selling the connection kits at a loss.

Without a Starlink v2 network on time, the beautiful mechanics will stop and costs will quickly add up. Without Starship rockets available, it is all of SpaceXs ambition (orbital flights, colonization of the Moon and then of Mars ) which is compromised, despite the insolent successes already obtained with the Falcon 9 launcher and the Dragon capsule. .

See original here:
SpaceX: production problems of Raptor engines, Elon Musk evokes a risk of bankruptcy Bulk Solids Handling - Bulk Solids Handling