What is it like to work at SpaceX?


What is it like to work at SpaceX?

REENTRY, the latest book by space journalist Eric Berger, is a thrilling look inside the company in the years that it struggled to make its boosters reusable, produce a Dragon capsule that could deliver supplies and astronauts to the space station, and compete against the traditional aerospace heavyweights for NASA contracts.

I had the pleasure of reading this book over the past month. I’ve never worked at SpaceX. But I have worked over 20 years in the aerospace industry. My career included jobs on a hypersonic re-entry vehicle, cruise missiles, and several military aircraft.

Here are major takeaways I got from the book that gives you a unique and exclusive perspective of what it is like to work at SpaceX.

Able to be scrappy

The engineering philosophy and business mentality of Elon Musk permeates his companies. Dramatically reducing the cost of payload to orbit is his obsession. Therefore, every cost is ruthlessly scrutinized. The book has many stories of employees who have to be extremely creative and resourceful to get jobs done as inexpensively (and often as quickly) as possible.

For instance, instead of hiring a major construction company to prepare the ground for the new Starbase in Texas, SpaceX employees rented the heavy equipment and operated it themselves.

There are dozens of other examples in the book where SpaceX employees were pushed, pulled, or compelled to find innovative, scrappy, and clever solutions by questioning normal assumptions, requirements, and legacy aerospace SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures).

Able to deal with rapid changes in strategic direction

You should have noticed that SpaceX has multiple world-changing projects happening at the same time. Falcon 9 rockets. Dragon capsules for cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Dragon capsules for astronauts to and from the ISS (which have to be very different). Starlink satellites. Starship and the Heavy Booster.

Doing all of these herculean programs at the same time – and successfully – is rather insane. Yet somehow they have done it. Reading the book Reentry, you will learn that when one of these programs faces an urgent deadline or a new emphasis from Musk, you might find an email from him that goes to everyone in the company that says something like,

Be advised, from this point forward, everyone’s priority in the company will now be ____.

— Elon

I’ve never worked at a company like that. But if you work at SpaceX, that’s what you’ll have to manage apparently.

Able to work 80-100 hours per week

Reading the book Reentry was at times quite painful and exhausting. Because I empathized with the employees Berger was describing. I empathized with Berger too, because he had to try and keep up with all of the people he interviewed to make the book.

At one point in the book, Musk was so insistent that Starship get completed ASAP, he ordered cameras installed inside the Texas factory so he could watch what was happening 24/7. He apparently told people: 

This place needs to look like a [bleeping] beehive of activity 24/7!

— Elon

I never saw or heard it said that SpaceX hires 3 complete shifts of people, so if you are going to have a 24/7 operation, that means people are spending almost every waking hour at work.

In fact, that was the story from many employees in the book. Some handled it better than others. Some could handle it longer than others. But based on what I read in the book, the ability to do this needs to be your assumption going in.

Able to turn the impossible into merely late

This refers to one of Musk’s famous quotes. This is what SpaceX has done regarding reusable rockets. Landing a booster on a boat in the ocean. Landing a booster at the same facility from which is launched a few minutes earlier. Making a rocket bigger than the Saturn V… I could go on.

If you want to be assigned a job that seems impossible at first – and possibly for many months, even years – then SpaceX might be the place for you.

Able to make human life multiplanetary

Musk has an obsession with bringing humans to Mars, as you should know. Everyone at SpaceX is ultimately working on that mission. If you share a burning desire to see humanity be multiplanetary, based on reading Reentry, everyone who works at SpaceX shares that vision too.

Are you able to see the pattern?

Maybe you have noticed, a common pattern with all of these takeaways is that SpaceX has people who are able to do things. The company is filled with highly capable people. 

This is another feature of SpaceX (and all of Elon’s companies, it seems) that makes them unique in our world. There’s no time and no space for slackers. I love that and appreciate it greatly.

If you think you want to work at a rocket company with that level of awesomeness, I recommend you invest in the book Reentry, read it, and then decide again if SpaceX is the company where you want to work.

My profound admiration and thanks go to everyone who has ever worked at SpaceX; past, present, and future. My thanks to Eric Berger for his tiresome hours and work ethic to write his latest book. And thanks to you for reading this blog post! 

Whether you eventually work at SpaceX or not, go boldly into a career of your own making!

P.S. For a more enjoyable and stress-free way to immerse yourself in the world of SpaceX, get the authoritative SpaceX Fan Coloring Book that I made.


About Brett Rocket Scientist

Brett creates artful work in engineering, ideas, and innovation. In addition to 2 degrees, 3 patents, and over 15 years experience in aerospace engineering, he is the author of several books to foster STEM careers. He volunteers his time and skills as an officer with professional societies.

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