Thread by @SciGuySpace

Some notes regarding SpaceX cuts. A large number of rumors swirling around. Here's what we know and don't.

1. The company has said the cuts are 10 percent. Sources have suggested the number may be higher than that, but I have absolutely zero confirmation on this.

2. Employees were invited to an all-hands meeting, and then essentially told to go home and wait for e-mails that would tell them whether they still had a job. Talk about nerve-wracking.

3. These cuts were not unexpected. SpaceX had grown rapidly, needing to engineer Falcon 9 various iterations, Dragon, Dragon 2, Falcon Heavy, Starlink, BFR, and more. Now they are done with development of a lot of those projects.

4. SpaceX no longer needs to build 100s of Merlin engines or 10s of Falcon 9 cores a year. Same with Dragons. So it needs fewer people in production. When you hear about low-cost rockets, and reuse, that means fewer people are needed.

5. It is a classic Silicon Valley (and Elon) move to "cull the weak," which is a terrible thing to say about the fine men and women who worked really hard for SpaceX. But this was a step the company took to get leaner.

6. Fortunately for a lot of these people, there is a robust aerospace market in the Los Angeles area, with several companies scaling up and hiring. They have valuable skills and experience that will hopefully help them find new jobs quickly. Certainly, I wish them well.

7. Finally, if you want SpaceX to succeed with Starship and Super Heavy, they will need to be super-lean with development costs. Few (if any) government funds have emerged to support these products. The Boca Chica mock-up notwithstanding, they have a long way to go.