SpaceX Lays Off 10% of Workforce to Become 'Leaner'
SpaceX announces a 10% workforce reduction to become leaner as it develops Starship and Starlink.
SpaceX announces it is laying off about 10% of its roughly 6,000 employees as part of a push to become a leaner organization. President Gwynne Shotwell sends an email to staff describing the job cuts as a very difficult but necessary decision. The company states that to continue delivering for customers and succeed with its massive future projects, it must streamline its current workforce.
The layoffs come as SpaceX tackles two incredibly expensive and ambitious initiatives: the development of the interplanetary Starship Mars spaceship and the Starlink global satellite internet constellation. Company leadership notes that either of these monumental projects has historically been enough to bankrupt other organizations. Despite the reduction in staff, the business remains highly active and recently raises about $273 million in a funding round that values the company at $31 billion.
SpaceX maintains a busy operational schedule alongside these financial and structural changes. The company successfully conducts 21 launches in 2018, which is an increase from the 18 launches it completes in 2017. Looking ahead, SpaceX is preparing for a crewless test flight of its NASA astronaut capsule in February, while Elon Musk indicates that a hopper test of the Mars spaceship prototype is possible as early as next month.