Category Archives: SpaceX

Unfair Characterization: NewSpace is Not ‘Billionaires Gone Wild’

Even negative critiques of SpaceX on Glassdoor – there are several – all describe Musk as working constantly, very, very hard long tough hours;  he took real risks with his own personal cash upfront to start SpaceX long before hiring a single lobbyist….he has also singularly changed momentum to Mars settlement on a grand scale, and, for initial missions advocates Mars to Stay….so this page celebrates his efforts, with wide tolerance for what could be perceived as “gilded” materialism by cheap snarks who have not had the opportunity to know what it is like to make such lifestyle choices in the first place. It’s impossible to determine what is in a person’s heart – sometimes even our own – but as a commentator to the Breitbart article wrote, “For SpaceX, all of Elon’s contracts were for services delivered. Not cost plus, and for a tiny fraction of what NASA HAD been paying for similar services. All of SpaceX’s contracts came in under budget. I can’t speak for Solar City and Tesla, but from a SpaceX standpoint this seems off base.”

“Ultimately we don’t really want 10,000 people on Mars…
we want millions.” 
Elon Musk

"Red Dragon Departing Bigelow Earth-Mars Cycler"

red_dragon_departing_bigelow

Learning experience from this: probably not to use a misleading logo like “Target” : ) and to alter
logos to fit a color scheme rather than select only those with original colors fitting the scheme….
High Res: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Advertising_Subsidized_Red_Dragon_(artist%27s_mockup).jpg

Character Reference: SpaceX’s Molly Soule

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania newspaper:

“SpaceX, a rocket and spacecraft design company based in Los Angeles, hired Liverpool native Molly Soule to help weld together vehicles capable of inter-planetary travel — enabling future generations the opportunity to live on Mars.

“I’ve always been really fascinated with aerospace,” Soule said. “And SpaceX’s main mission is to occupy Mars and to make it affordable to have regular people live there.”

But it wasn’t space travel that encouraged Soule, 20, to pursue welding. It was motorcycles.

“My fascination with motorcycles and cars really got me pumped on working with my hands,” Soule said. “I thought welding would be great a way to get involved with stuff like that.”

That passion, she says, led her into Keith Hammond’s welding shop at Cumberland Perry Area Vocational Tech School three years ago.

Hammond says Soule, one of two women in the class, not only impressed, but she also dominated.

“It’s a male-dominated field, but she excelled,” he said. “She just rose above everybody else with her grades and work ethic.”

Soule mastered tungsten inert-gas welding (TIG) during her three years under Hammond’s instruction.

“What was extraordinary about Molly was her TIG welding skills,” Hammond said. “TIG welding is very hard, and you have to have good hand-eye coordination.”

TIG welding uses an arc of electricity that jumps from a tungsten metal electrode to the intended weld surface, which is often comprised of aluminum or steel. The process proves ideal for welding round or curvy objects, such as motorcycle frames.

When compared to traditional stick welding, TIG welding creates cleaner, more precise seams between objects because no filler metal is applied to fuse objects together.

Soule says she prefers the complexity of TIG welding and its usefulness when constructing motorcycle chassis (frames).

“I really grew in the weld shop at vo-tech,” she said. “Mr.Hammond allowed me to demonstrate my skills and really encouraged me.”

Soule graduated in June and took a job TIG welding at Henchcraft Racing Products in Newport.

“She turned down a higher-paying job because she wanted to focus on her TIG welding,” Hammond said.

The decision, he says, ultimately landed her the position at SpaceX.”