SpaceX says it is building a factory in Austin, Texas, to design systems that will help make satellite dishes, Wi-Fi routers and other equipment for its Starlink satellite broadband network. The news comes from a job advertisement for a position as an automation and controls engineer signaled in a story on Tuesday by local news channel KXAN.
“To keep up with global demand, SpaceX is pioneering a new, state-of-the-art factory in Austin, TX,” said the job posting. “The automation and controls engineer will play a key role as we strive to manufacture millions of consumer-facing devices that we ship directly to customers (Starlink antennas, Wi-Fi routers, mounting hardware, etc.).”
The factory apparently will not make the dishes and routers on site, but instead will design systems that improve the manufacturing process. “Specifically, they will design and develop control and software systems for production line machinery – ultimately facing the toughest mechanical, software and electrical challenges that come with high volume manufacturing, all while maintaining a focus on flexibility , reliability, ease of maintenance and ease of use “, said the job advertisement.
Starlink is in beta and is serving more than 10,000 customers and has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy up to 5 million user terminals in the United States. SpaceX calls this piece of hardware “Dishy McFlatface” and receives transmissions from SpaceX’s low Earth orbit satellites. See our disassembly article for Dishy McFlatface for more details on the internal parts of the hardware and this article for more photos of the dish in its fully intact state.
Starlink is charging $ 99 a month, plus a one-time fee of $ 499 for the user terminal, tripod mount and router. Starlink recently started accepting service orders that would become available in the second half of 2021.
Shipping to 25 countries this year
The new job ad said that the chosen candidate will work in Austin, but will spend up to 25 percent of the time at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles “until [the] Austin’s facility is fully established. “The new engineer will have an impact on Starlink’s ability to ship hardware this year. The person” will define, implement and maintain schedules and budgets to ensure completion of the project as we strive to ship to more than 25 countries by the end of the year, ” said the job ad.
The engineer is expected to “design, develop and manage automation and control projects to manufacture consumer electronic products that are easy for humans to use worldwide, but that are technically very sophisticated – this includes the initial factory design , online commissioning and proof of fee capacity and eventual transfer to operational teams. “The engineer will also” lead the installation and initial conceptual development of the equipment, carefully balancing product specifications, process requirements, complexity of the layout, cost and delivery times, “said the job posting.
We asked SpaceX for more details on plans for the Austin facility and when it will open and where exactly the dishes and routers will be manufactured. We will update this article if we get a response.
The new SpaceX plant would be close to the planned Tesla car plant in Austin. SpaceX’s founder and CEO, Elon Musk, is also the CEO of Tesla.