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SpaceX currently has 13k employees and some part of me wonders why JPL needs 6k employees to do what seems like much simpler task? But that might be feature, no

SpaceX currently has 13k employees and some part of me wonders why JPL needs 6k employees to do what seems like much simpler task? But that might be feature, not a bug.

verzali 2y ago
Why do you think JPL has a simpler task? Are you aware of all the missions they run? The Mars rovers? The Psyche asteroid mission? Juno? Europa Clipper? If anything, SpaceX should be far more efficient. They essentially operate a single product, the Falcon 9, with occasional launches of the similar Falcon Heavy. Starship might need a few more people, but I'm not sure its more complex than designing and operating Mars Rovers. And Starlink should also be pretty simple to operate now, assuming they have taken advantage of automation. Whereas JPL is designing and operating a lot of unique and very different spacecraft.
- CableNinja 2y ago
  Much of the spacex workforce is manufacturing and construction peeps. Almost every part is made on site, for many reasons. As a result, the workforce is much larger than JPL. NASA and JPL are more 'customer' (to put it as Scott Manley did), and much of the stuff they have is outsourced from other companies. This leaves the NASA and JPL workforce more lean, naturally. Spacex has a lot of efficiency, and automation, but still needs such a workforce because of the size of the operation. The other half of the workforce make up the totality of NASA and JPL engineers and scientists for the operations themselves. Ive heard a few times that SpaceX has a habit of trying to use a manufacturer, and burning them out due to speed and quantity, then as a result move that manufacturing inhouse either by buying the mfgs operation or starting a new one. NASA and JPL dont have this issue, because they are doing one-off things 99% of the time, and dont need a constant supply of widgets from a lone mfg. And, SpaceX is more than a single rocket op. Falcon, starlink sat and starlink terminal, starship, are four, just to name the majors. These all require different types of people and while theres some overlap on them, are all specialized. Consider this, NASA and JPL contract out all of the various systems for a rocket and payload. Spacex, with the exception of customer payloads, does everything. That means a whole slew of systems need to be built. SpaceX doesnt contract a life support system or engine out, its all inhouse. And there is way way way more than a rover, in fact as far as i know, there is no spacex rover in plan, thats NASA stuff, SpaceX is aiming for people, and a long term (18+ month) ship is much more complex than power and telemetry for a rover payload.

SpaceX currently has 13k employees and some part of me wonders why JPL needs 6k employees to do what seems like much simpler task? But that might be feature, not a bug.

verzali 2y ago

Why do you think JPL has a simpler task? Are you aware of all the missions they run? The Mars rovers? The Psyche asteroid mission? Juno? Europa Clipper? If anything, SpaceX should be far more efficient. They essentially operate a single product, the Falcon 9, with occasional launches of the similar Falcon Heavy. Starship might need a few more people, but I'm not sure its more complex than designing and operating Mars Rovers. And Starlink should also be pretty simple to operate now, assuming they have taken advantage of automation. Whereas JPL is designing and operating a lot of unique and very different spacecraft.

CableNinja 2y ago
Much of the spacex workforce is manufacturing and construction peeps. Almost every part is made on site, for many reasons. As a result, the workforce is much larger than JPL. NASA and JPL are more 'customer' (to put it as Scott Manley did), and much of the stuff they have is outsourced from other companies. This leaves the NASA and JPL workforce more lean, naturally. Spacex has a lot of efficiency, and automation, but still needs such a workforce because of the size of the operation. The other half of the workforce make up the totality of NASA and JPL engineers and scientists for the operations themselves. Ive heard a few times that SpaceX has a habit of trying to use a manufacturer, and burning them out due to speed and quantity, then as a result move that manufacturing inhouse either by buying the mfgs operation or starting a new one. NASA and JPL dont have this issue, because they are doing one-off things 99% of the time, and dont need a constant supply of widgets from a lone mfg. And, SpaceX is more than a single rocket op. Falcon, starlink sat and starlink terminal, starship, are four, just to name the majors. These all require different types of people and while theres some overlap on them, are all specialized. Consider this, NASA and JPL contract out all of the various systems for a rocket and payload. Spacex, with the exception of customer payloads, does everything. That means a whole slew of systems need to be built. SpaceX doesnt contract a life support system or engine out, its all inhouse. And there is way way way more than a rover, in fact as far as i know, there is no spacex rover in plan, thats NASA stuff, SpaceX is aiming for people, and a long term (18+ month) ship is much more complex than power and telemetry for a rover payload.