Criticizing Elon Musk, Five SpaceX Employees Were Fired!

SpaceX, the backbone of the US space program. (photo: twitter @spacex)

JAKARTA - Private US rocket company SpaceX has fired at least five employees after it was discovered they had compiled and circulated a letter criticizing founder Elon Musk. The employees also urged executives to make the company culture more inclusive.

SpaceX itself did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters, on the report.

The New York Times also reported on Thursday, June 16 that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter. The NYT cited three employees familiar with the situation. However, they did not specify the number of employees laid off.

According to the NYT report, SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and "terminated a number of employees involved" with the letter.

The newspaper said Shotwell's email explained employees involved in circulating the letter had been fired for making other staff feel "uncomfortable, intimidated and intimidated, and/or angry that the letter pressured them to sign something that did not reflect their views".

Musk, the world's richest man, is currently pursuing a $44 billion bid to buy Twitter and has made clear his support for freer control of opinion on the site. Last Thursday, he told Twitter employees that the platform should allow "very outrageous stuff" as long as the content isn't illegal.

The dismissal is certainly a contradiction with Elon Musk's ideals in upholding free speech.

SpaceX's letter, captioned "an open letter to SpaceX Executives," seen by Reuters, called Musk a "nuisance and shame" for the company he founded.

The list of three demands in the letter said "SpaceX must quickly and explicitly disassociate itself from Elon's personal brand", "hold all leadership equally responsible for making SpaceX a great place to work for everyone" and "define and respond appropriately to the uniform all forms of unacceptable behavior". Read more

Musk, also the head of electric car maker Tesla Inc, has made headlines and was featured in late-night comedy monologues in recent months, including over his attempt to take over Twitter. Likewise with his criticism of the Democratic Party. Meanwhile he also faces allegations of sexual harassment, which Musk himself has denied in a Twitter post.

The open letter at SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal "Moral Booster" group chat that brings together thousands of employees.

Musk, who is also the company's chief engineer, has been seen as a central figure in many of SpaceX's major successes, such as pioneering the reuse of orbital rocket boosters and bringing back routine human spaceflight from US soil after a nine-year gap. .

Shotwell, who leads most of SpaceX's day-to-day business, said he would uphold SpaceX's "zero tolerance" standards against employee harassment.

Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the US space program. They are now the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from US soil. They even plan to send humans to the moon for the space agency within the next decade.

SpaceX is also one of two companies on which the Pentagon relies to launch most of the US military and spy satellites into space. This position makes SpaceX and Elon Musk so vital to the US government.