SpaceX: Elon Musk advertises ‘thousands’ of jobs at Starbase in Texas in aftermath of SN11 explosion
‘Starbase will grow by several thousand people over the next year or two’, Mr Musk tweeted
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Your support makes all the difference.Elon Musk has tweeted a call for engineers to work at SpaceX, following the launch - and failure - of the SN11 rocket.
"Please consider moving to Starbase or greater Brownsville/South Padre area in Texas & encourage friends to do so! SpaceX’s hiring needs for engineers, technicians, builders & essential support personnel of all kinds are growing rapidly," the CEO tweeted.
“Starbase”, Mr Musk’s name for the Boca Chica Village in Cameron Country, Texas, “will grow by several thousand people over the next year or two”, he added. The CEO has said that he wants to build a city around the existing SpaceX facility, where the company is testing its prototype rockets.
There are currently over 1000 vacancies for positions in SpaceX, many of which located in Brownsville. Mr Musk has tweeted that over 10,000 people are needed for Giga Texas between now and 2022, and is donating $20 million to Cameron County schools, and an additional $10 million to Brownsville for “downtown revitalisation” - as it is likely that improvements to the local area will make it more attractive for prospective workers, and therefore beneficial for Mr Musk in the long-term.
Unfortunately for international fans of the company, this offer is only available to US citizens. This is because of International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), which states that military technology can only be operated on by citizens and US-based companies. The regulations have been criticised as stifling the United States’ potential benefits from foreign experts, and lauded for national security reasons.
A career at SpaceX, and Mr Musk’s other venture, Tesla, has historically not been a smooth experience, however, with damning reports of a difficult workplace environment.
Mr Musk has addressed criticism of his management style in the past. Responding to an article in the Wall Street Journal that noted “Tesla is one of Silicon Valley’s most in-demand employers, despite—or because of—Elon Musk”, Mr Musk seemed to defend the long working hours at the companies, suggesting it was about “getting things done”.
“There are way easier places to work, but nobody ever changed the world on 40 hours a week,” he wrote. “But if you love what you do, it (mostly) doesn’t feel like work.”
Neither SpaceX nor Tesla responded to a request for comment when contacted byThe Independent before time of publication.
Mr Musk’s workplace announcements comes after Starship SN11 exploded upon its decent after a test, with pieces of debris falling in at least one kilometre radius around the craft. The video stream did not show the explosion, as the official video from a camera on board the craft froze before SpaceX ended the stream.
Cameras and equipment from companies including NASASpaceflight and Everyday Astronaut were seemingly damaged in the blast.
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