Featured Image Source: SpaceX
SpaceX teams are working around-the-clock to develop the next-generation launch system – Starship. SpaceX founder Elon Musk envisions a fleet of hundreds of Starships embarking on a voyage to colonize Mars. SpaceX plans to launch a Starship carrying cargo to the Red Planet in 2022, and the first humans until 2024. Starship will be capable of transporting tons of cargo and one hundred passengers on long-duration voyages through deep space.
Multiple stainless-steel Starship prototypes are under construction at the company’s South Texas facility located at a small village in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville, TX. These prototypes are undergoing a series of tests that will offer engineers insight towards the development of a space-ready Starship. On Tuesday, August 4, teams successfully conducted a test flight of the Starship SN5 test vehicle. SN5 lifted off 150-meters above the ground with the power of a single Raptor engine. Engineers also landed the vehicle flawlessly on a nearby launch pad. The successful test flight brings the company closer towards taking a Starship vehicle to orbit.
Boca Chica is rapidly transforming into a rocket factory; giant Vehicle Assembly Buildings are under construction. The company also started building an outdoor restaurant that features groovy food trucks for employees. The restaurant’s roof is made out of a Starship test vehicle’s stainless-steel fins, pictured below.
Images Source: Tesmanian.com
Musk doesn’t want to settle at rocket factory, he calls Boca Chica the “Gateway to Mars” and aims to transform the village into a spaceport. This week, SpaceX posted a new job listing seeking to hire a “Resort Development Manager” to develop the company’s first resort and spaceport. – “SpaceX is committed to developing revolutionary space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Boca Chica Village is our latest launch site dedicated to Starship, our next-generation launch vehicle,” the company wrote in the job listing, “SpaceX is committed to developing this town into a 21st-century Spaceport. We are looking for a talented Resort Development Manager to oversee the development of SpaceX's first resort from inception to completion.”
The manager will be responsible for managing “the design, architecture and construction of the project,” as well as “obtain all city, county, governmental approvals and coordinate all of the fieldwork, act in the capacity of a project superintendent,” among other tasks.
SpaceX is hiring a “Resort Development Manager” to develop the Boca Chica Village in Texas “into a 21st century Spaceport” and the company’s first resort. https://t.co/AEfUaCIVGr pic.twitter.com/rhJqq2rnIV
— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) August 10, 2020
Earlier this year, SpaceX posted a job listing seeking a “project coordinator” to "make Boca Chica, TX an epic place to live and work." They will manage a “SpaceX Village” that will feature bookable rooms and activities, like volleyball tournaments, kayaking, and even “spaceport lounge events and parties.” The coordinator would be responsible for owning “the final layout and operation of the spaceport lounge (restaurant and bar) while working closely with food services” and planning all the events at the SpaceX Village. According to the job listing, the village would feature at least 100 bookable rooms. Employees would have the option to work and live on-site, which is convenient because some do travel to work between SpaceX’s headquarters in Hawthorne, California, and South Texas.
About the Author
Evelyn Arevalo
Evelyn J. Arevalo joined Tesmanian in 2019 to cover news as a Space Journalist and SpaceX Starbase Texas Correspondent. Evelyn is specialized in rocketry and space exploration. The main topics she covers are SpaceX and NASA.
