{"id":19091,"date":"2017-01-27T19:51:51","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T11:51:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/spacex-adds-a-big-new-lab-to-its-satellite-development-operation-in-seattle-area\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T19:51:51","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T11:51:51","slug":"spacex-adds-a-big-new-lab-to-its-satellite-development-operation-in-seattle-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/spacex-adds-a-big-new-lab-to-its-satellite-development-operation-in-seattle-area\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX adds a big new lab to its satellite development operation in Seattle area"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Redmond
SpaceX has leased Building 117 at Redmond Ridge Corporate Center, which has 40,625 square feet of space. (Sierra Construction)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

SpaceX has taken on a 40,625-square-foot facility in Redmond, Wash., that will become a research and development lab for its ambitious satellite operation.<\/p>\n

The warehouse-style space in the Redmond Ridge Corporate Center, owned by M&T Partners, is slated for a $2.1 million interior remodeling job, according to a permit application filed last month with King County.<\/p>\n

SpaceX is already using a 30,000-square-foot office building that\u2019s about a 10-minute drive away in Redmond.<\/p>\n

Setting up the lab, and hiring the engineers who will work there, marks a significant ramp-up for SpaceX\u2019s presence in the Seattle area\u2019s Eastside region. The California-based company\u2019s billionaire founder, Elon Musk, established the Redmond operation in 2015 to develop satellites that would provide global internet access.<\/p>\n

\"SpaceX
SpaceX\u2019s Redmond office is the center for its satellite operations. (GeekWire photo by Kevin Lisota)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that the 4,425-satellite constellation is one of the keys to SpaceX\u2019s long-term business plan \u2013 and Musk himself has said satellite revenues would fund his vision of sending thousands of settlers to Mars.<\/p>\n

When Musk unveiled the plan in Seattle, two years ago, he said the satellite engineering operation could eventually employ \u201cmaybe 1,000 people.\u201d The company\u2019s total employment is in the range of 5,000.<\/p>\n

SpaceX hasn\u2019t publicized how many people are now working in Redmond, but the company is listing more than 60 open positions there, including spots for hardware and software engineers, satellite system engineers, designers and project managers.<\/p>\n

Last November, SpaceX laid out the details for the satellite constellation in a filing with the Federal Communications Commission. Previously announced schedules have called for the first wave of satellites to be deployed in the 2018-2020 time frame.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s job listings suggest that satellite components will be built and integrated for testing at the Redmond lab. The Puget Sound Business Journal said there were rumors that a manufacturing plant eventually might be put in Kent, Wash., but SpaceX spokesman John Taylor said the company has made no decisions about satellite production facilities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SpaceX has leased Building 117 at Redmond Ridge Corporate Center, which has 40,625 square feet of space. (Sierra Construction) SpaceX has taken on a 40,625-square-foot facility in Redmond, Wash., that will become a research and development lab for its ambitious satellite operation. The warehouse-style space in the Redmond Ridge Corporate Center, owned by M&T Partners, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[291,1045,20,316],"class_list":["post-19091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-commercial-space","tag-elon-musk","tag-satellite","tag-spacex"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19091\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}