{"id":18441,"date":"2018-07-11T21:06:25","date_gmt":"2018-07-11T13:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/heres-why-space-engineers-come-to-seattle-and-why-some-of-them-leave\/"},"modified":"2018-07-11T21:06:25","modified_gmt":"2018-07-11T13:06:25","slug":"heres-why-space-engineers-come-to-seattle-and-why-some-of-them-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/heres-why-space-engineers-come-to-seattle-and-why-some-of-them-leave\/","title":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s why space engineers come to Seattle \u2026 and why some of them leave"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"New
Engineers work on New Shepard\u2019s crew capsule at Blue Origin\u2019s Kent factory. (Credit: Blue Origin)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new employment study indicates that roughly 3,000 people are directly employed by Washington state\u2019s space industry, and roughly half of them are at Blue Origin, Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos\u2019 space venture.<\/p>\n

Most of Blue Origin\u2019s 1,500 employees work at the company\u2019s headquarters and production facility in Kent, Wash. So Erika Wagner, Blue Origin\u2019s payload sales director, has a good grasp on what draw space-savvy engineers to the Seattle area.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we ask our new employees why they\u2019re coming \u2026 I\u2019m going to guess that about half of them tell us that Seattle is part of the reason they say yes,\u201d Wagner said today at a luncheon forum presented by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. \u201cThey have other options on the table, but they\u2019d like to live here. They want to go hiking, or they want to go boating, or they want to have access to the symphony or the opera here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seattle\u2019s blend of the great outdoors and a vibrant cultural scene adds to the region\u2019s legacy in engineering, software and aerospace, fueled by Boeing, Microsoft and more recently Amazon.<\/p>\n

Most of Blue Origin\u2019s employees stick around: Wagner said the turnover rate amounts to less than 4 percent of the workforce annually. But what is it that motivates the ones who leave? There\u2019s a bit of irony in Wagner\u2019s answer to that question.<\/p>\n

\u201cA significant percentage of them say the reason they leave is Seattle,\u201d Wagner said. \u201cIt\u2019s the rising cost of living, it\u2019s the weather, it\u2019s the traffic, it\u2019s the whatever. It\u2019s very much both one of our strongest assets, and one of our biggest challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Seattle area\u2019s assets for the space industry, and its challenges, were the focus of today\u2019s forum.<\/p>\n

\"Space
Panelists for the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce\u2019s forum on the space industry include EarthNow\u2019s Kyu Hwang, Space Angels\u2019 Joe Landon, Blue Origin\u2019s Erika Wagner and Seattle author Sam Howe Verhovek. (GeekWire Photo \/ Alan Boyle)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Economic activity traced specifically to space still makes up a small share of the total aerospace industry in Washington state. The latest figures compiled by the Puget Sound Regional Council set the space sector\u2019s economic impact at $1.7 billion. In comparison, the economic impact of the wider industry, ranging from rockets to passenger jets to drones, is estimated at $69.9 billion annually.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the space industry\u2019s local impact is growing rapidly, thanks to Blue Origin and other ventures ranging from century-old Boeing and decades-old Aerojet Rocketdyne to more recent startups such as Planetary Resources and EarthNow.<\/p>\n

Joe Landon, who serves as the chief financial officer for Redmond, Wash.-based Planetary Resources and chairman of the Space Angels investment group, said Seattle\u2019s space ventures often have to look far afield to find the talent they need.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t have much home-grown talent,\u201d Landon told the luncheon crowd.<\/p>\n

Wagner said there\u2019s a particularly acute need for expertise in avionics, electrical engineering and computer science.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost software engineers haven\u2019t thought about being part of our industry,\u201d she said. \u201cIt makes recruiting that much harder, especially when we\u2019re competing against Silicon Valley startups for our talent pool here on the West Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

A video from the Washington State Department of Commerce\u2019s \u201cChoose Washington\u201d campaign states the case for the region\u2019s space industry:<\/strong><\/p>\n