After celebrating a series of successful launches, including the final shipment of Iridium satellites to low earth orbit last week, SpaceX has announced it’s laying off about 10 percent of its staff. The company told Reuters that it faces some “extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead” and needs to lean out its operation. “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,” Reuters quoted a SpaceX spokesman as saying in an email. “Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations.” SpaceX didn’t specify the difficulties it’s girding against but it does face significant competition on several fronts.
Its Starlink satellite Internet service is in a race to market with OneWeb and Canada’s Telesat to bring web service to all corners of the earth. A couple of months ago, SpaceX founder Elon Musk fired seven senior managers of the Starlink program over the pace of the development. The company also has some capital-intensive projects on the front burner, including a trip to Mars and creation of a crew capsule service for the International Space Station. The retro-looking SpaceX Starship was unveiled on Friday.
