I came across this interesting article describing how SpaceX is ramping up its production facilities.
It’s headquartered in California, but for its new rocket ship, Starship, SpaceX is building out it’s based on the coast of Texas.
And the speed at which they are moving is mind-blowing.
SpaceX CEO and lead engineer Elon Musk got the whole company together on a Sunday night at 1 am. He announced that they needed a lot more people, so encouraged everyone to look at their own circle for qualified people. Hiring would start at 11am the next day.
Hiring continued till 11pm on Monday. Staff count was 500 at the end of the day, more than double what they started with 2 days earlier.
Why?
To realize Musk’s vision of establishing a Mars colony, he feels they need a lot more rocket ships.
SpaceX engineers and technicians in Boca Chica needed eight months, from last April through November, to build the first Starship prototype, MK1. But the workers in South Texas only needed a month, from late January to late February, to assemble SN1. And SN2 is following only about two weeks behind SN1.
Inside Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week
The goal is to ramp up production further and to get to about 1 Starship being put out every 72 hours, and later taking it to 1 per day.
And it’s not about just producing a specific amount of vehicles. Ramping up production means they find out faster what is working and what isn’t:
“A high production rate solves many ills,” he said. “If you have a high production rate, you have a high iteration rate. For pretty much any technology whatsoever, the progress is a function of how many iterations do you have, and how much progress do you make between each iteration. If you have a high production rate then you have many iterations. You can make progress from one to the next.”
Inside Elon Musk’s plan to build one Starship a week
Fascinating to see them ramping up hiring, production and site building at such a break-nack pace..
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