SPACEX GOOD-PAYING JOB PROMISES UP IN HOPPER "SMOKE"

EIS SpaceX submitted to the FAA IN 2013:

Approximately 30 full-time SpaceX employees/contractors would be present at the vertical launch area and/or control center area in 2013... During a launch campaign, an additional 100 local or transient workers would be working at the vertical launch area and/or control center area. During launch campaigns, the additional workers could work extended hours; however, 2 days prior to launch, full-time SpaceX employees/contractors and the local or transient workers would need to be on-site for up to 24 hours per day. 

Staffing on-site would return to normal levels (approximately 30 full-time SpaceX employees/contractors) within a day or two after the actual launch. 

Table 2.1-2 shows the number of full-time SpaceX employees/contractors working on site plus the local/transient workers necessary during launch campaigns that would be present between 2013 and 2022.


Table 2.1-2. Personnel for Proposed SpaceX Texas Launch Site Operations

Year                      Full-time SpaceX                                   Full-time SpaceX
                            Employees/Contractors                           Employees/Contractors plus
                               Working On-Site                           Additional Local/Transient Workers
                                                                                         during Launch Campaigns

2013                                          30                                                       130
2014                                          75                                                       175
2015                                         100                                                      200
2016                                         100                                                      200
2017                                         110                                                      210
2018                                         130                                                      230
2019                                         150                                                      250
2020                                         150                                                      250
2021                                         150                                                      250
2022                                         150                                                      250

Now, these numbers are the ones given by SpaceX to the federal government in its Environmental Impact Statement. Then-BEDC's VP Gilbert Salinas and CEO Jason Hilt (and then-Mayor Tony Martinez and the commission) all said there would be 1,000 direct and indirect jobs each paying $55,000 as a result of SpaceX establishing operations here.

Are the indirect jobs those shining shoes and washing cars for the permanent workers? Or is it the extra waitress at the Boca Chica buffet restaurant needed every two weeks a month to service them?

At the peak of employment (three years from now) Space  said it will need only 250 workers (including the 150 full-time employees) to shoot the rocket.

All that has, apparently, changed. There will be no commercial vertical satellite launch spaceport built. There will not be 12 launches to attract tourism. Boca Chica has become the private testing pad for pie-in-the-sky Mars colonizer billionaire Elon Musk.

What hasn't changed is the state and county incentives totaling $35 million in grants and and millions in tax abatements to attract Musk here.

And - depending on his private business needs - he can open or close Boca Chica Beach and limit access to the public - to suit his needs.

Below is the Brownsville Herald story soft-shoe on the change in plans.

"The FAA conducted a “written re-evaluation” of SpaceX’s intentions, concluding that the 2014 EIS remains current and “substantially valid,” rendering a supplemental EIS unwarranted.

At the time, Boca Chica was touted as the future home of the world’s first commercial spaceport. SpaceX secured authorization from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for no more than 12 launches of its Falcon 9 rockets per year, including a maximum of two launches of the Falcon Heavy.

The first Falcon Heavy launch didn’t take place until February 2018, with two more occurring in April and June of this year, all launches taking place at Cape Canaveral, Fla.

The focus at Boca Chica has shifted, however, as the company pursues rapid development and testing of prototypes for the Starship spacecraft. In combination with the massively powerful Super Heavy booster, Starship is intended to get humans to Mars in the not-too-distant future with the ultimate goal of colonizing the planet.

“SpaceX remains committed in its mission to colonize Mars,” according to the FAA’s re-evaluation.

Starship’s earliest prototype, Starhopper, flew to an altitude of 150 meters on Aug. 27, marking an important milestone for the company. Musk tweeted on Aug. 28 that the next goal is a 20-kilometer flight of the Mk1 (the next Starship prototype, under construction at Boca Chica) in October, with an orbital attempt “shortly thereafter.” A similar prototype, the Mk2, is being built at Cocoa, Fla., near Cape Canaveral.

Musk tweeted that the Mk1 will be complete in time for a Sept. 28 presentation he plans to deliver at Boca Chica on the progress of Starship development.

In its re-evaluation, the FAA breaks the Starship “experimental test program” down into three phases. The first phase, including verifying ground systems by test-fueling the prototype, conducting brief engine ignition tests and barely lifting Starhopper off the ground, is complete. So has the part of phase two that involves launching Starhopper to up to 150 meters, or about 500 feet, the craft’s second and final flight.

Remaining as part of phase two is for SpaceX to launch the Mk1 up to three kilometers, or about 1.8 miles, which the FAA terms a “medium hop.” Phase three of the Starship test program will involve a maximum of three “large hops” — suborbital flights to 100 kilometers, or 62 miles — as well as “flip(ping) the Starship at high altitude, and conduct(ing) a reentry and landing,” according to the FAA.

The re-evaluation states that SpaceX anticipates the test program lasting two to three years, and that the results of phase one and two will dictate what happens in phase three. The re-evaluation covers only the first two phases since SpaceX currently lacks adequate data for the FAA to analyze the potential environmental impacts of phase three, according to the agency.

“Prior to commencing Phase 3, SpaceX would be required to submit data and information to the FAA so the FAA can conduct another environmental review before issuing any new or modified (launch) licenses or permits to conduct these operations,” said the agency."