World's richest man Elon Musk warns of SpaceX 'bankruptcy' unless Starship engine 'production crisis' for missions to Mars is solved Elon Musk warned employees that they needed to solve the problem with their Starship engine production or else the company could face bankruptcy By Ronny Reyes For Dailymail.Com Published: 16:41 GMT, 30 November 2021 | Updated: 17:11 GMT, 30 November 2021 1 Viewcomments Elon Musk, the world's richest man and CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, told employees that the aerospace company could face bankruptcy if they did not produce Raptor engines more frequently, according to a SpaceX email obtained by CNBC. Musk was reportedly angry with the lack of progress on his Starship rocket engines which are meant to be used on missions to the moon and Mars. 'The Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,' Musk wrote just before the Thanksgiving holiday. 'We face genuine risk of bankruptcy if we cannot achieve a Starship flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year.' A SpaceX email from CEO Elon Musk to employees revealed the billionaire's worries that if the company could not solve its engine problems, it could face bankruptcy On February 2, the massive rocket attempted its first high-altitude test but was unable to stick the landing that finished with a deafening crash and exploded into bright orange flames The Starship is a massive, next-generation rocket SpaceX is developing for missions to the moon and Mars. The first high-altitude test of the rocket and its Raptor engines in February ended in a massive explosion when one of the two engines failed to re-ignite before landing. The company will need as many as 39 Raptor engines for its missions, and Musk appeared concerned that SpaceX would not be able to produce enough engines for bi-monthly flights in 2022. Musk had been reviewing the company's work after the departure of former Vice President of Propulsion Will Heltsley earlier this month when he discovered things were 'far more severe' than he thought, CNBC reported. The CEO opted to cut his Thanksgiving holiday short to work on the engine production line on Friday and over the weekend. 'We need all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster,' Musk wrote in the email. Share or comment on this article: All rights reserved for this news site (dailymail) and under his responsibility