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<Elon Musk Frantically Warns Employees of Potential SpaceX Bankruptcy Musk advised employees to work over the weekend after reading Raptor engine production issues were far worse than previously thought. Image: Win McNamee (Getty Images) SpaceX employees received a nightmare email over the holiday weekend from CEO Elon Musk, warning them of a brewing crisis with its Raptor engine production that, if unsolved, could result in the company’s bankruptcy. The email, obtained by SpaceExplored, CNBC, and The Verge, urged employees to work over the weekend in a desperate attempt to increase production of the engine meant to power its next-generation Starship launch vehicle. “Unfortunately, the Raptor production crisis is much worse than it seemed a few weeks ago,” Musk reportedly wrote. “As we have dug into the issues following exiting prior senior management, they have unfortunately turned out to be far more severe than was reported. There is no way to sugarcoat this.” SpaceX did not immediately respond to Gizmodo’s request for comment but Musk did Tweet about the report Tuesday afternoon. “The magnitude of the Starship program is not widely appreciated” Musk tweeted. “It is designed to extend life to Mars (and the moon), which requires ~1000 times more payload to orbit than all current Earth rockets combined.” Though Musk did not confirm or deny the email’s veracity he spoke to its content saying that, while he did not believe bankruptcy was likely, it wasn’t impossible either. The CEO went on to apparently quote Intel founder and former CEO Andrew Grove, writing “only the paranoid survive.” In his email, Musk advised workers to cut their holiday weekend short and called for an “all hands on deck to recover from what is, quite frankly, a disaster.” Summing up the problem, Musk warned the company could face bankruptcy if it could not get Starship flights running once every two weeks in 2022. If all of this sounds familiar, that’s because Musk has previously spoken publicly about times where both SpaceX and Tesla were on the verge of bankruptcy in their early years. More recently Musk claimed Tesla came within “single digits” of bankruptcy as recent as 2018. Raptor’s engine is a critical component of Starship, which SpaceX hopes will one-day transport cargo and people to the moon and Mars. Starship’s ability to meet these ambitious goals is critical to SpaceX’s long-term success which is built upon Elon Musk’s promise of multi-planetary human exploration. According to Musk’s email, Starship will also play a critical role in launching Starlink’s next-generation satellites into orbit. Musk’s stressed-out email follows a tweet earlier this month where the CEO admitted the Raptor 2 would need a “complete design overhaul” to make multi-planetary life possible. Not long after that, two SpaceX vice presidents abruptly left the company according to CNBC. One of those executives, Will Heltsley, who had been at the company since 2009, was working on the Raptor project but was taken off due to a lack of progress. The alarming news comes near the close of what’s been an otherwise stellar year for SpaceX. In 11 months SpaceX managed to launch 25 successful Falcon 9 missions, sent a dozen astronauts to space and drew a roadmap to mass commercialization with its Starlink satellite internet service. You can read the full email over at The Verge.>

How To Watch The Decade’s Final Rocket Launch, China’s Game-Changing ‘Long March 5’ https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiecartereurope/2019/12/26/how-to-watch-chinas-mars-mission-hinges-on-long-march-5-success-the-decades-last-rocket-launch/#50c57ab75da9 Launch this evening @ 8:45pm SGT from Wenchang space facility in Hainan island...on the final Friday of 2019. astastast

Confirmed later tonight at 2204hr (SGT) If everything goes as planned, China's 2nd prototype space station will be later crewed by 2 astronauts in Oct on a manned-vehicle launch for a 30-day mission. The fatter Tiangong-2 (TG-2) module in the top mount of Long March 2F rocket before being moved to a launch pad at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.

http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/gpgt-who-left-his-matador-roadside-4847204.html Someone misplaced their new year fireworks..... Think they are duds I guess.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMGfsWgIujk Boleh Land GE message from DAP

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea's much hyped long-range rocket launch on Friday ended in apparent failure, South Korean officials said, dealing a blow to the prestige of the reclusive and impoverished state that defied international pressure to push ahead with the plan. North Korea said it wanted the Unha-3 rocket to put a weather satellite into orbit, although critics believed it was designed to enhance the capacity of North Korea to design a ballistic missile deliver a nuclear warhead capable of hitting the continental United States. A spokesman for the Defence Ministry in Seoul told journalists that the rocket had broken up and crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch. Officials from Japan confirmed the mission had failed, while ABC News cited U.S. officials saying it had failed, although there was no immmediate indication of where it fell. The rocket's flight was set to take it over a sea separating the Korean peninsula, with an eventual launch of a third stage of the rocket in seas near the Philippines that would have put the satellite into orbit. This was North Korea's second consecutive failure to get a satellite into orbit, although it claimed success with a 2009 launch and there was no comment on the launch from North Korea's official media. The Unha-3 rocket took off from a new launch site on the west coast of North Korea, near the Chinese border. The launch had been timed to coincide with the 100th birthday celebrations of the isolated and impoverished state's founder, Kim Il-sung, and came after a food aid deal with the United States had hinted at an easing of tensions on the world's most militarised border. Source : http://sg.news.yahoo.com/north-korea-launc...-231525748.html

My wife saw this at UK recently

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../344446/1/.html http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp.../344430/1/.html WTF see how they earn. tis why they cant wait to increase the price.

http://www.straitstimes.com/ST%2BForum/Onl...ory_212835.html

looking at those threads in "Conti talk",i see alot of people are talking about the Bravo T-jet. this pocket rocket reminds me of the Colt Version R and i believe these two are a great contenders to each other. what is your choice between the two? i did some search on the internet and i found some informations on these two models with pictures to compare. Colt Version R is 1.5litre while Bravo T-jet is 1.4litre. the Colt produces higher power and torque than the Bravo,but the Bravo has got a "secret weapon" which can boost its torque instantly at a touch of a button which can surpass the Colt. the outlook of the Colt looks sportier,especially with the evo style bonnet,than the Bravo but the interior of the Bravo with red/blue(depending on colour of car)trim is much nicer than the plain looking Colt. the Colt Version R is a 2+2 seaters while i believed the Bravo T-jet could be a 2+3 seaters(correct me if iam wrong). the gearbox for the Colt is a traditional 5 speed manual transmission and the Bravo has got a 6 speed manual transmission which is definitely better than the Colt,this might gives the Bravo a closer ratio gearbox and better mileage compare to the Colt. needless to say,the continental car cost more than the japanese ones,but we are paying for what we get in terms of the overall quality. Colt Version R(about $72k) produces 163Bhp@6000rpm and 210Nm@3500rpm compression ratio 9:1 Bravo T-jet(about $90k) produces 150Bhp@5500rpm and 206Nm@2250rpm, 230Nm@3000rpm compression ratio 10:1(if i remember correctly) Front: Rear: Interior:

Read a report in yesterday copy of New Paper on the incident of cabby cheats at KL. A reporter whilst travelling in KL for a 4 km ride was charged RM60 (S$26) about the distance of Tanglin Mall to Suntec City. The taxi driver apparently had rigged his cab with a "Rocket Meter" which caused the fare meter to change at a faster rate than usual. The reporter was riding with an official from Malaysia's Road Transport Department (JPJ) who flagged the suspected taxi for a ride. They notice a wire near the driver's seat running under a rubber mat on the cab floor. (see photo attach) The wire appeared to be connected to the fare meter at one end and the other to the button that opens the vehicle boot. How the wire work was not mentioned in the report. So, beware when you are taking a taxi in KL. With the report made known in MY, I strongly believe that the taxi drivers with "Rocket Meter" will target the less suspecting tourist next. Especially Singaporean who will be going to MY during the year end school holidays. Anyone who suspect that they had been cheated could report to JPJ, Complaints and Investigation Unit at 03-0420 2223 or after office hours = 03-4023 6470.

Hello people, Do anyone know where can i get lower preiums for Auto Insurance ?