[MarcysVonEylau]

It all makes sense when you look at basic facts.

Rocket reuse became a normal occurance, probably earlier than the majority of the industry anticipated. Their competitive pricing took the market by storm, changing the equation of sending anything to space. There are less new payloads to launch in 2019, because it takes much longer to contract and build a satellite than to send it to space, and the market hasn't yet adapted to this new mechanic.

Their need for manufacturing new boosters scaled down greatly because of reusability. You cannot reasign all engineers to other projects, some must go.

On top of that SpaceX is moving to new risky projects like the Starship, and they need to cut any fat that poses risk to their long term plans.

Lastly, as few pointed out, it's a great opportunity to get rid of underperforming employees and restructure the company.

[7e]

The launch market is very small and it's always taken longer to build a satellite than to provision the launch vehicle.

These layoffs are a direct result of SpaceX's recent failures to raise money.

[TaylorAlexander]

The key I think is that the launch rate has increased, but the market has a years long delay due to build times. The result is that the existing supply of launchable satellites has been consumed, so fewer launches are available to pay the bills.

[icpmacdo]

Can you link to the failure to raise money? I thought they just secured 500 million.

[azernik]

$500M was the size of the offering; as of 3 January, they had only managed to raise $273M

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1181412/000118141219...

[aey]

They should open it to the public with a reg d/s. I would love to be able to invest into SpaceX.

[garmaine]

That would endanger the long term plan of Martian colonization, which is not the most financially responsible thing to do. Elon is keeping SpaceX private so as to have some control over who invests, to make sure they’re onboard.

[aey]

Reg d or s is still private. But there are limits to number of investors.

[gaius]

it's a great opportunity to get rid of underperforming employees and restructure the company.

Positions are made redundant, not people. Individual performance is irrelevant, if not the company needs to be taken to the cleaners at a tribunal.