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Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't aware of that. Guess I need to become a US citizen, then... On a sidenote, why is that the case? Sure, SpaceX is a US-based c

Thanks for the heads up, I wasn't aware of that. Guess I need to become a US citizen, then... On a sidenote, why is that the case? Sure, SpaceX is a US-based company, but why does that mean that they can't hire non-US citizens with visas etc? What export regulations are they - and come to think of it, what are they exporting?

jonnycowboy 15y ago
Exporting is loosely-defined here. It means that they can't show export-controlled data (ie: some parts of rocket / missile technology) to foreign nationals. Just showing the document inside a US company to a non-US person is classified as "exporting".
arethuza 15y ago
Almost certainly ITAR: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_Regulations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Traffic_in_Arms_R...
maaku 15y ago
ITAR... it is a ridiculous, crazy law that has killed the US satellite industry. Hopefully it will be repealed soon.
vela 15y ago
International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR, https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ITAR https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/ITAR). Many space technologies are listed as munitions in the US, and revealing information about those technologies to foreigners counts as export. There are exceptions, and you can get export licenses (companies routinely do), but hiring non-Americans would be a pain—American employees wouldn't be able to share much information with them! p.s. Under ITAR, all you need is a green card. I don't know if that's good enough for SpaceX—they might be under other restrictions than ITAR, too.
- ptio 15y ago
  SpaceX can hire Permanent Residents (Green Card) too.