SpaceX to lay off 10% of workers

New York: As SpaceX attempts to get two expensive projects off the ground, the US-based private spaceflight company said it would lay off 10 percent of its roughly 6,000-person workforce. “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,” the Elon Musk-led company was quoted as saying in a statement on Friday by CNN.

“This action is taken only due to the extraordinarily difficult challenges ahead and would not otherwise be necessary,” the statement added. SpaceX has a booming business but its plans are very ambitious. While it has a contract with NASA to deliver cargo to the International Space Station (ISS), the company is now planning to start flying astronauts to the ISS for NASA sometime this year.

In September, Musk estimated SpaceX would spend between $2 billion and $10 billion developing an ultra-powerful spaceship and rocket system, recently renamed Starship and Super Heavy. (IANS)

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