Elon's SpaceX Tour - Offices
By SpaceX
Summary
## Key takeaways - **Open office plan maximizes communication**: SpaceX minimizes the number of private offices because doors limit communication. Instead, employees, including vice presidents, work in cubes to foster a more open and communicative environment. [00:30], [00:42] - **Employee roles and responsibilities**: The sales department is responsible for generating revenue, working on deals for Falcon 1, Falcon 9, and Dragon spacecraft. This highlights the commercial aspect alongside the engineering focus. [01:00] - **Direct engine applications**: The direct engine is a critical component used in both the Dragon spacecraft and the upper stage of the Falcon 9 for orbital maneuvering and re-entry. [02:05] - **Meeting rooms honor rocket pioneers**: Conference rooms are named after great rocket engineers and scientists, reflecting SpaceX's science and engineering-centric culture and acknowledging those who enabled space exploration. [02:33]
Topics Covered
- Why SpaceX's Open Office Maximizes Communication
- SpaceX Credits Engineers, Not Astronauts, for Progress
Full Transcript
All
[Music]
right, welcome to SpaceX. Uh, here we
are in the lobby. It's very white right
now, but there are actually some some
cool uh elements coming in soon that
will make it less white.
In the front of the building, we have
our engineering offices and and space
for about 300 people per floor. And
we've got a total of about three floors
that we can open. Right now, only the
first floor is occupied. Um we try to
aim for something which is a very open
plan uh to maximize communication and
make it sort of you know fairly nicel
looking. Uh this place used to be quite
dismal. That's that's my office over
there. Actually
we really try to minimize the number of
offices that we have because doors limit
communication. Everyone at the company
with the exception of a few people in
like HR and finance actually um are in
cubes uh including your vice presidents
over there. There's Gwen at her cube.
Um,
I should have cleaned up if I were
coming. Although this is really reality,
I guess. I'm responsible for sales. I'm
in charge of uh making sure that there's
revenue here in the company and we're
working on lots of Falcon 1 deals,
Falcon 9 deals, and Dragon deals.
So, this is just a little area where
people can meet and um and have sort of
an impromptu meeting. Um, obviously also
very open. Um, I think it's actually
quite helpful to have this openness
because then you can sort of see what
people are working on in their
computers.
Um like what Matt McCun here is is
doing. Um
what are you working on there?
Uh I'm making a uh assembly
documentation for the uh Draco.
Okay.
RCS.
David is is
driving the development of our inspace
thruster which is called Draco. Um and
um there's a little piece of it or
that's just a temp that's just a sample
spun cone. Yeah. So yeah, we're doing
all our Texas testing at our facility
down there. We got a new vacuum system.
So kind of going back and forth between
there kind of progress along.
Right. So this the direct engine is what
is used in our Dragon spacecraft and
also in the upper stage of of Falcon 9
for orbital maneuvering and re-entry.
This is uh our meeting room, VIP meeting
room for uh when we meet with our
customers and um if a CEO of a customer
comes through or something like that.
It's kind of cool because it's got this
glass that um that goes opaque and we
put a motion sensor on it. So as you
walk in the glass goes opaque. We we
named our copper frames after the great
um rocket engineers and great scientists
related to space. So we think they they
really deserve the credit for you know
enabling us to become a space fairing
civilization. So we're fairly um science
and engineering centric. Um we have some
some conference rooms named after
astronauts too but but we try to focus
more on the the people that actually
designed and built the rocket.
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