The base of a rocket prototype is where Musk stands.
The lack of progress in the development of the Raptor engines that power the Starship rocket is angering Musk.
He described a dire situation the day after Thanksgiving in a company-wide email that was obtained by CNBC.
The production crisis of the Raptors is worse than it was a few weeks ago, according to Musk.
If we can't achieve a flight rate of at least once every two weeks next year, we face a real risk of bankruptcy.
The next-generation rocket is being developed by the company to launch people and cargo to the moon and Mars. The company is testing prototypes at a facility in southern Texas. The rocket prototypes will need as many as 39 Raptor engines each to move to orbital launches.
The significance of the departure of the former vice president of propulsion was brought up in Musk's email to the employees. CNBC reported that Musk said in his email that the company's leadership has been digging into the program's problems since then, and discovering the circumstances "to be far more severe" than he previously thought.
CNBC requested comment from SpaceX, but they did not reply immediately.
Space Explored, a subset of 9to5Mac, reported on the email from the founder and CEO.
There is a closer look at the base of Super Heavy Booster 4.
Musk wrote in the email that he was going to take the Thanksgiving holiday off. Musk said he would personally work on the engine production line through Friday night and into the weekend.
Musk wrote that they need all hands on deck to recover from the disaster.
The founder has said that production is the most difficult part of the project. The company has built up its production and testing facility in Boca Chica, Texas, with multiple prototypes in work at the same time.
The company is about to launch to space.
A prototype of a rocket engine is to be fired on November 12, 2021.
Musk said that the first flight of the Starship will be in January or February, pending regulatory approval by the FAA.
After a launch, the rocket and its booster can be recovered for future flights. The Falcon 9 rockets are not completely destroyed. The upper portion of the rocket is not allowed to be re-launched by the company.
Musk said that he was unsure if the rocket would make it to space on the first try, but he was confident that it would. At the time, he noted that the company did not assume any international collaboration or external funding.
Over the past several years, the company has raised billions of dollars to fund its projects, including Starlink, which has a valuation of $100 billion.
The first version of the satellite is financially weak, according to Musk. The company has been growing Starlink's user base, with about 140,000 paying for service.
Musk said in an email that the second version of the satellite can only be launched by its rockets.
Musk said that the second generation satellites don't have the mass or volume needed to be deployed with the Falcon 9 rockets. The success of the Raptor engine program is critical to the long-term financial stability of the Starlink service, which Musk has talked about spinning-off in an IPO.
Musk said in the email that the Starlink antenna production will be increased to millions of units a year if the project fails.
