SpaceX Private Space Company Would Lay Off 10 Percent of Its Employees

SpaceX Private Space Company Would Lay Off 10 Percent of Its Employees
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Despite the sustained launches and deep space mission that SpaceX has under development as we speak, the Elon Musk’s private space company is announcing that it will lay off 10% of its workforce.

SpaceX, which is headed by Elon Musk, former CEO of PayPal and currently the head of Tesla Motors, is not slowing down the pace of its activities, between sustained satellite launches and refueling for the ISS space station. Besides these purposes, SpaceX is also preparing for the so-called Dragon capsule that would make it possible for humans to land on the Moons and establish the first Mars colony.

However, those ambitious plans did not prevent the #1 private space company from laying off no less than 10 percent of its workforce, estimated at 6,000 employees.

Referring to a “tough but necessary decision” in a letter to employees, the company’s president Gwynne Shotwell explained that the step was necessary to continue to meet the demands of the company’s customers and to lead interplanetary projects simultaneously.

SpaceX Private Space Company Would Lay Off 10 Percent of Its Employees

SpaceX made 21 launches last year, up from 18 in 2017, and expects to further accelerate the pace, as it by now has launched ten more Iridium satellites, taking advantage of its multi-reusable SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets’ technologies, which the company has demonstrated during several launches in 2018.

In parallel, the company is preparing the Demo-1 mission. That would be the first mission operating a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launcher carrying a human-crewed Dragon capsule, to be launched in February.

The company is already profitable, according to statements made by the same Gwynne Shotwell a few months ago, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, with several years of profitability assured thanks to its order books.

SpaceX private space company will provide several weeks’ salary and career support for the employees the firm would fire.


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