Source: Evelyn Arevalo/Twitter @JaneidyEve
SpaceX had a Starship Career Day event today, Thursday, February 6 at their South Texas facility located in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, Texas. The Chief Engineer and Founder of SpaceX, Elon Musk, was present at the event where hundreds of people showed up with their resume, waiting in a long line that lasted over 3 hours outside in the cold - All for a chance to be part of the rocket company that will enable life on Mars. SpaceX will change the course of humanity’s future, transforming us into a spacefaring civilization one day!
To achieve that amazing ambition, it will take thousands of people with different skills working together. At SpaceX every job position is important no matter if you are a top engineer or have a supporting role like a receptionist, every single employee at SpaceX plays a vital role in working collectively towards the goal of returning to the moon and living on the Red Planet.
Musk announced the company is currently seeking individuals who desire to work in Starship production -the actual assembly of the stainless-steel spacecraft. Earlier this week he said via Twitter that the "Starship career day" job fair would be especially to hire four full production shifts that would enable the Starship spacecraft production all day, for "24/7 operations." He did mention that "engineers, supervisors & support personnel," is also welcome to apply at the job fair event but he emphasized the company needs production crews that desire to assemble the Starship prototypes. The production crews are likely people who want to actually hands-on build the craft, individuals who have a variety of fabrication skills. Musk's full statement:
"This is mainly for staffing up 4 production shifts for 24/7 operations, but engineers, supervisors & support personnel are certainly needed too. A super hardcore work ethic, talent for building things, common sense & trustworthiness are required, the rest we can train."
The rocket company is currently working on the construction of Starship SN1, which will be a massive stainless-steel flight vehicle that will perform high altitude test flights above Boca Chica. According to a recent FCC filing, SpaceX aims to launch Starship SN1 sometime between March 16 and September, though it is likely we will witness the crafts first test flight in March or April if construction progress goes smoothly. The first test flight will be 20 kilometers high, which is pretty high considering the edge of space starts at around 100 kilometers.
Today at the job fair event, people waited hours in a long line to check-in to give their resume to SpaceX employees. Since Boca Chica (Brownsville, Texas) is mostly inhabited by Hispanics (like myself) Musk showed so much appreciation for our local culture and cuisine by hiring a Mariachi Band that played beautiful Mexican music all day even at night under the moon -while everyone waited for their turn to be interviewed (listen to a song linked below). He also rented a food truck that offered traditional Mexican food, a kind gentleman personally brought everyone in the long line (including myself) some “Churros” -which is the Mexican equivalent to doughnuts- it was so delicious!
me screaming:
— Evelyn Janeidy Arevalo (@JaneidyEve) February 7, 2020
VIVA MEXICO! ❤️🚀 pic.twitter.com/0Ey7w9X0E7
To speed up the job application process, a couple of SpaceX engineers walked down the long line to ask who was applying for a welding position, and they gathered everyone who went for a welding job. A guy who applied told me they actually did a welding test on site, in order to test their skills. Welding stainless-steel is an important part of Starship’s assembly, specifically they were searching for those who are familiar with TIP TIG welding. The company has been building and testing Starship propellant tanks that required flawless welding techniques to withstand highly pressurized propellant during flight. The entire Starship SN1 flight vehicle is actually stainless-steel, so they sure need many working hands. Musk wants to build a production crew to work around the clock 24/7.
While everyone waited in line for their turn, the Mariachi Band played one beautiful melody after another, suddenly after about 3 hours in line, Elon Musk surprised everyone when he came out of the UTRGV Stargate building. He grabbed a microphone to thank everyone for coming to the Starship Career Day event and took some photos with the Mariachi Band. I was in the entrance, Musk walked up to the fence shook my hand, everyone who was waiting outside to be admitted into the application session came close to greet him with excitement. A local news reporter got to ask him a few questions, Musk joked with the crowd when he was asked for a selfie, smiled said "I'll be trapped in selfie land" if he agreed (haha). He talked about Starship details and when he stumbled upon the word vibe in his sentence he paused to jokingly promote his new SoundCloud song "Don't doubt ur vibe." (watch the video above!) After greeting everyone, said he had to go back to work on Starship. The Career Day event ended at 9:00 p.m local time. Good luck to everyone who applied!