To build a new starship every three days or 72 hours: This was the agenda in an all-hands meeting SpaceX big boss Elon Musk called for, at 1 a.m. last Sunday of Feb. 23.
This was based on a story Ars Technica published late this week. In the wee hours that weekend, Tesla and SpaceX billionaire boss, famous for setting unusual goals, wanted to know from everyone in his team the reason his factory was not operating 24/7 to build a Starship rocket system.
The engineering team at SpaceX told Musk there would be more people needed to take shifts to make the 24/7 operations possible.
So, in the next 48 hours from that 1 a.m. meeting, the company hired exactly 252 workers, doubling the current number, employees at the factory, as the report from Ars Technica stated. The said report described what it's like to work under Musk's management.
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What it's Like to Work at SpaceX
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX President started employment at the rocket company in 2002. More than a decade-and-a-half later, she said she "still loved working for Musk."
However, she admitted, her work at SpaceX is intense. The company's president added, there's no question that Elon is quite aggressive when it comes to his timelines.
This attitude though, Shotwell said, drives them to do this faster and better.
One more thing she realized, with their boss's aggressiveness on timelines, both time and money in the world do not provide the best solutions.
Therefore, she said, "Putting that pressure on the team" to move fast is quite essential. Shotwell also said she had learned how to listen and think before refusing or declining the bold goals of Musk.
First of all, she explained, when their big boss says something, one has to pause and not blurt out right away.
Not Just a Boss who Orders People to Do Things
Those who have worked with Musk will surely agree that there's something the public needs to know about their boss. That, he is not the typical company owner or head who orders people to do things.
What needs to be understood is that Musk is the chief engineer of SpaceX, too, and this, as stated in the said article, "is not a courtesy title." In an interview with Ars Technica, Musk said when SpaceX first began, no great engineers were taking the job.
Therefore, he didn't see the point either, of hiring someone to take the chief engineer title, who wasn't great, as well. And so, he took the responsibility and became SpaceX's chief engineer.
Nearly every technical decision made at the rocket company, especially the hard ones, goes directly to him. Musk spent a lot, if not all, of his days in South Texas since December.
On Christmas, workers there shared, "he worked all-nighters alongside them to get the dome structure, as well as the welds right for SN1." Nevertheless, he hasn't spent so much of his time here just for the building of Starship.
Instead, he is attempting to build a production line for Starships and he wants to build a lot of them really fast, as always.
