SpaceX did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
The New York Times reported Thursday that SpaceX had fired employees associated with the letter, citing three employees with knowledge of the situation. The number of employees who had been laid off had not been detailed.
SpaceX president Gwynne Shotwell sent an email saying the company had investigated and “ended up with a number of employees involved” with the letter, the New York Times said.
The newspaper said Shotwell’s email said employees involved in circulating the letter had been fired to make other staff members “uncomfortable, intimidated and harassed, and / or angry because the letter was pressuring them because they signed something that did not reflect their views. “
Reuters was unable to confirm this report independently.
Billionaire Musk is pursuing a $ 44 billion bid on Twitter and has made clear his support for freer speech control on the site. On Thursday, he told Twitter employees that the platform should allow “pretty outrageous things” as long as the content is not illegal.
The SpaceX letter, headed “a letter open to SpaceX executives,” seen by Reuters, called Musk “distraction and embarrassment” for the company he founded.
In a list of three lawsuits, he said, “SpaceX must quickly and explicitly separate from Elon’s personal brand,” “hold all leaders accountable equally so that SpaceX is a great place to work for everyone.” and “define and respond uniformly to all forms of unacceptable behavior.”
Musk, also head of electric car maker Tesla Inc., has been in the headlines and has appeared in nightly comedy monologues in recent months, including his quest to take over Twitter, his criticism of Democrats and a sexual harassment allegation Musk has denied in a Twitter post.
The open letter to SpaceX, first reported by The Verge, was drafted by SpaceX employees in recent weeks and shared as an attachment in an internal group chat “Morale Boosters” that brings together thousands of employees, said a person familiar with the matter, asking him. not to be named.
Musk, also the company’s chief engineer, has been seen as a central figure in many of SpaceX’s high-profile achievements, such as pioneering the reuse of orbital rocket propellants and recovering the usual human spaceflight since of American soil after a nine-year hiatus. .
Shotwell, who runs much of the company’s day-to-day business, said he will enforce SpaceX’s “zero tolerance” standards against employee harassment.
Founded by Musk in 2002, SpaceX has played a central role in the US space program, becoming the only company capable of launching NASA astronauts into space from US soil and planning to send humans. to the Moon for space agency over the next decade.
SpaceX is also one of two companies the Pentagon relies on to launch most US spy and military satellites into space.