I hear you, Jeff… and thanks for the insight. While I appreciate SpaceX’s accomplishments as an outsider… I wouldn’t want to work there either. I wasn’t a workaholic when I worked in industry… and always felt that those who tried to balance work and family were at a distinct disadvantage. Especially when some of those “workaholics” would come in early, get their cup of coffee, and fiddle-fart around most of the day… only to jump up suddenly just before quitting time and rush around like mad, just to be seen by their superiors. Sadly, though their actual output was often less than the conscientious 8-hour day worker… they were too often rewarded for their acting skills more than their output.
Yeah, there’s a lot of glamour associated with space flight and only those who love it and have the talent will be the ones able to work as fast/long/hard as I’m sure Elon requires. The difference here IMO is that Elon is not only “king” but undisputed head technical guru as well… and I doubt anyone would dare question his approach, priorities, and sense of direction. I’m sure he simply communicates his vision and how he wants to get there and that pretty much gets set in stone throughout the organization. With Elon at the top, I doubt there’s a lot of room in the ranks for more free-thinkers. Contrast that with outfits headed by business men, with stock holders and $$$ being highest priority… and IF the product is of any real importance to them, they’ll reward the free-thinkers in the ranks that can make it happen.
I realize the government-subsidized industry has to play by the rules and do their part to contribute to that truckload of paperwork the regulations require. And, all too often, the actual product development has to take a back seat… so the schedule slips and everything costs way more than the marketeers originally said it would. But since they already know the customer really doesn’t want to lose the money he’s already invested, he’ll throw more money into the pot, and there’s actually little incentive for them to stay on schedule and within budget.
There’s no way, of course, the “big boys” in the industry will ever be as agile/nimble as a small, private, company such as SpaceX. My hope, however, is that SpaceX’s successes and relatively low-cost launch services – which are glamorous – will create excitement and raise public awareness to the point of asking why the rest of the industry isn’t able to do this as well?
Lockheed Martin space is here in Denver. LM is huge, 120k+ people, most of them are engineers. But LM space, at least at the plant here, which I believe is their headquarters, is less than 5k people. I’m not sure spacex is really any smaller nowadays.
As for “that guy” and their acting ability. I have definitely worked with them. I agree that is common, especially at larger companies. I can say pretty confidently that me, working from home, trying to produce with just 24 hrs/week to do it, gets a lot done per hour. When I’m the only one on a small project, there is nowhere to hide if I’m not producing. Although these days a lot of my productivity is leading more junior FT engineers to max out their productivity.
I’ve had very competent technical company leadership before, and it can be pretty damaging if not done right. They can’t possibly know every detail and if they can’t be criticized, then they are better off keeping their opinions very vague. Even something like, “use XYZ hardware” may seem useful, but fatal flaws might be found in the details and then you have to swim upstream to change the boss’s choice.
We have Rockwell CollinsUnited Technologies Collins Aerospace (Raytheon). Metric buttloads of engineers. One building that’s completely encased in another building purely for security reasons. If I could program embedded flight controls, I’d be working there instead of QA’ing financial reports…
I’d like to thank the Academy, the guys in the break room who believed in me when I was just an intern, my clueless managers over the years, and especially my Dad, who taught me the best way to get out of doing work is to make people scared of your work! Who can forget that pilot light incident? Not the neighbors!
I’m still incredibly fascinated by the gigantic “maker” project going on at BocaChica, Tx… where SpaceX is getting close (probably within the coming week) to static test firing a Raptor 3-engine cluster currently being installed on SN8… the latest prototype Starship, scheduled to fly to 15km (~50,000 ft) in the coming weeks. This is the first prototype to feature the fins that are to help slow the craft during its descent, in a “belly flop” maneuver, that is designed to help the craft get ready to reorient for a soft propulsive-landing on a landing pad, ala the Falcon9 boosters that are now almost routinely performing these landings, both on land and at sea.
Daily, Mary (aka “BocaChicaGal”) is getting these incredible videos of the goings on… both with the spacecraft assembly and the assembly and launch facilities. The Starship iterative development model is so radically different from the norm… and incredibly fun – and rare! – to watch. Rapid assembly of a succession of prototypes (Starships SN8 thru SN12 and SuperHeavy booster SH1 are currently under construction), test, learn from the successes and mistakes, make adjustments to next ship(s) in line, and test again. While we’re not privy to a lot of officially-released low-level detail, observation of the tests and procedures involved has started educating us as to what we might expect next. One thing for sure, Elon Musk and his entire staff have a real sense of urgency to make all this happen as soon as possible… and it’s quite apparent he’s not afraid to let the world be witness to all that’s going on. So, if you are at all interested in watching actual SpaceX Starship development and construction – using a process not unlike the one a lot of us “makers” actually use – I’d recommend subscribing to the channel above. It’s pretty exciting, really.
Let’s see… part “top” goes on part “bottom”. Super-glue? Fasteners? Imperial or metric? Source locally… or from Ryan? How square does it really need to be? Dust collection… do we need it? NEMA17’s… or NEMA23’s? Series wired… or parallel? [Don’t forget to clip the zip-ties holding the fins before launch.] Launching straight up/down is “meh”… how 'bout a “crown” maneuver on the way up and a “belly-flop” on the way down? Gonna go just to 15km (~50,000 ft)? If going that far… why not orbital?
Now to weld it all together and retest the tanks and engines. Speculation is that there should now be another 3-Raptor engine static fire test (possibly preceded by pressure and cryogenics tests again) and then, hopefully, a launch to 15km (~50,000 ft), possibly before month-end. It’s unclear whether they’ll try the “belly flop” (skydiver) maneuver (that’s what the flaps are for) but, whether they do or not, they hope to propulsively-land this thing, softly, on a nearby landing pad, similar to the way Falcon9 rocket boosters do now. That’ll be a sight to see.
As amazing as this machine is… there’s already Starship SN9 waiting in the wings, just waiting on its wings/flaps and ready to take its place on the launch pad. In fact, SN8 (this one) thru SN14 are currently in various stages of construction… along with the first SuperHeavy booster (SH1) that’s supposed to power this Starship into space. It’s hard to imagine the machine on the launch pad right now sitting atop a booster that is even taller yet… for reference, the ship’s diameter is nearly 10 meters and the Starship alone is nearly 70 meters tall.
Quite an impressive and inspiring feat of engineering IMO… and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to witness it. It’s not something you see every day…
They are honestly starting to make this look easy. I know, for certain, that it is not. That must have a serious stockpile of brain power working in that place…I literally can not even begin to imagine how that all gets scheduled, tested, or comes together so quickly.
I agree, Ryan. We all know that it is NOT easy… and that, to me, is what makes this all the more exciting and inspiring. This eye-popping, head-spinning, SpaceX operation is going full-bore 24/7/365(?) and obviously has some serious talent onboard… starting at the top, of course, with Elon Musk. But, beyond talent, it also takes people who are “sold out”… and willing, for now, to OBSESS over the job and put their lives on hold, even as Elon does. I know as engineers and technical folks, we all love a challenging project… and most of these folks, I believe, are willing to give it their all as much for the challenge as the $$$. In my experience, ambitious, young, and truly talented engineers were always willing to work hard on challenging projects (if they were lucky enough to find one) and prove themselves to their peers… but they also craved visibility, especially from management. These folks have found not only that challenging project… but also an engineer/scientist/charismatic leader in Elon Musk, who is a proven visionary that they can believe in and who makes them aspire to something extraordinary. That they also get to do it, largely out in the open, in front of a stunned industry, and an increasingly excited/amazed and, now, watchingworld… all the better! Talk about visibility! And it probably won’t look too bad on the resume either…
That might really help. Being stuck behind NDA’s and dealing with patents can suck the excitement out of a project. They are moving so fast even if everyone could see every detail of what they were doing they could never catch up and beat them to the punch. So being able to say “I worked on that piece right there” or “my valve assembly is under the 4th panel up” has to be motivating in it self. Knowing you had any sort of part in this amazing project…well I bet some are willing to do that for free.
Where this get worrisome is burning these brilliant minds out. I hope they also have some smart enough people to recognize when to force these obviously obsessive maniacs to take a break.
I guess this is one of those things that hits me funny. If I won the lottery and money was not a huge issue, I think I would strive to get on some mind blowing project like this. I would hate to get to an interview and have to pass because of long hours and low pay. I would want to came at something like this unconstrained!
I think this is exactly why Tesla is so dominant in electric cars. Elon seems the ultimate believer in vertical integration and manufacturing efficiency. Look at the videos from his “gigafactories” and it is surreal to see the robotic assembly lines. And he doesn’t want to be dependent on outside suppliers… so he brings all the relevant technology and raw materials in-house and figures out how to manufacture it more efficiently and to his own high standards.
And I admire what Elon has planned with SpaceX and Starlink. With minimal help (everybody said what he was trying to do was “impossible”) and taxpayer money, he figured out how to build rockets from scratch… reusable rockets. Then he determined to make truly affordable and global internet a reality… and, with his reusable rockets, has already put 800+ internet satellites into low-earth orbit, which are already in beta test in northern US latitudes and showing promising results. In turn, he says this will eventually bring in more than enough billions of $$$ to allow continued development of Starship and his vision for colonization of Mars. I have mixed feelings about all those satellites in an already crowded space, and no interest at all in colonizing Mars, but truly affordable and usable internet all over the globe and the incredible technology and planning it takes to pull all this off… that’s exciting. I’m convinced Elon has found a way to make Starship and Mars/Moon missions happen… even if he never sees another taxpayer dollar; i.e. he seems bent on going to the moon and Mars… with, or without, a government-program or funding.
I can confirm this… having worked on “cutting edge” technology that eventually went into production, sat in storage for 20+ years, and then was used in the Gulf war… and later. So effective then, it’s still being produced and used today (though redesigned, for sure)… it still looks and operates the same.
That’ll depend on the individual, of course. Having served in a war-time military, I saw guys (myself included) go both ways with their newfound “manly” independence and the abnormality of war… some “grew up” and came to their senses and others went “ape” and never really came back. I could see the long hours and the excitement and crazy pace of innovation at SpaceX having the same, or similar, effect on some of the troops…
I’m quick to acknowledge those days are gone for me… even if I had the talent. But if I were a young and single engineer, that could be fun and exciting… at least, for a while.
Personally, when it’s felt these people need a break and change of scenery, I’d love to see their talents focused on ‘inner’ space, the oceans that cover so much of our planet yet remain largely unexplored. Many different problems to solve but IMO no less interesting or important.
I could save a lot of money by moving into the mountains (the less populated parts) or even out into Nebraksa or eastern Colorado. I could spend that money on solar power, an autonomous tesla to drive back to town for supplies, and starlink Internet. Since I can work remotely, I could keep my same job. Seems like a plan. If I can just convince my friends to do the same, and I could be convinced my kids would still get a good education.
