Elon Musk warns SpaceX employees of potential bankruptcy

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has warned his employees of a "genuine risk of bankruptcy" while urging them to work over the weekend on company's Raptor engine to speed up the production, according to a report.

In the email, seen by The Verge, Musk revealed that the Raptor production crisis is "much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago."

Raptor's engine is a critical component of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one day transport cargo and people to the moon and Mars. The company is testing prototypes at a facility in southern Texas and has flown multiple short test flights. 

"As we have dug into the issues following the exiting of prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this," the email read.

Musk also stated that instead of taking the weekend off as planned, he was going to be working on the Raptor all night and over the weekend. He then asked employees without "critical family matters" to work too, saying it was time for all hands-on-deck.

"The consequences for SpaceX if we can't get enough reliable Raptors made is that we then can't fly Starship, which means we then can't fly Starlink Satellite V2 (Falcon has neither the volume *nor* the mass to orbit needed for satellite V2). Satellite V1 by itself is financially weak, whereas V2 is strong," Musk added.

Earlier this month Musk had said he expected Starship to be launched into orbit for the first time as early as January, providing regulatory approvals were given by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA). He had also noted at the time that Starship development “is at least 90 per cent internally funded thus far,” with the company not assuming “any international collaboration” or external funding, CNBC reported.

SpaceX has raised billions in funding over the past several years, both for Starship and its satellite Internet project Starlink.