Elon Musk’s space exploration company SpaceX is cutting 10 percent of its workforce in an effort to cut down on costs and waste, The Los Angeles Times reported.
Musk – as SpaceX CEO – and company President Gwynne Shotwell broke the news to the estimated 6,400-employee workforce Friday at an all-hands meeting at the company’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California. A company-wide email was also sent to make sure those not present at the meeting received the message of the “very difficult but necessary decision.” (RELATED: NASA Opens Investigation Into SpaceX Over Elon Musk’s Weed Smoking)
“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,” SpaceX said in a statement, according to The Los Angeles Times. “Either of these developments, even when attempted separately, have bankrupted other organizations. This means we must part ways with some talented and hardworking members of our team.”
The company began mailing out pink slips Friday, offering a severance package that included eight weeks of pay, job search aid and other benefits. The layoffs hit the company evenly across locations and levels of management, two laid-off employees told CNBC.
Documents filed with the state of California showed that the company let go of 577 employees at its headquarters in Hawthorne, CNBC reported.
The SpaceX headquarters is shown in Hawthorne, California, U.S., Sept. 19, 2018. REUTERS/Mike Blake
SpaceX has been financially secure, winning contracts from companies and governments to place satellites in orbit and two multibillion-dollar NASA contracts to resupply the International Space Station and develop a pod that can carry astronauts to the space station. Shotwell said in May 2018 the company was profitable despite major setbacks, such as a 2016 explosion of one of its Falcon 9 rockets, CNBC reported.
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