Companies to Watch

Here are a few entrepreneurial commercial space companies and related organizations which, in my opinion, may be hiring in the coming months, based on industry trends - and perhaps a bit of insider knowledge here and there... :-) I recommend checking out their job boards pretty regularly...note, this is not intended as a comprehensive or exhaustive list...pls feel free to add names as appropriate...Im sure Ive missed a few...

Masten Space (see posting by MMealing above)
XCOR, Mojave, CA
SpaceX, Los Angeles, CA
Blue Origin, Seattle area, WA
SpaceDev, Poway, CA (near San Diego)
X-Prize Foundation, Santa Monica, CA
Scaled Composites, Mojave, CA
Andrews Space, Seattle area, WA

Various teams competing for the Lunar Lander Challenge
Various teams competing for the Google Lunar X-Prize

What do you hear about European companies?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Christian Lenz on March 21, 2008 at 11:16am: Burton,

Is this discussion limited to startups? If so, what defines a startup? I would argue that SpaceDev has been around a while and with their acquisition of Starsys certainly are not a startup anymore.

If you mean to include other companies that are in the 'expansion' mode or 'hiring mode', I would add Astrium, who have pages of pages of open jobs listed. Loral is also still looking in the SF area to my knowledge.

Cheers.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Burton Lee on March 21, 2008 at 11:32am: Christian, you are correct of course...SpaceDev should no longer be considered a startup...but I wanted to include companies in the "NewSpace" arena, that are a bit further along in their growth, as possibly more stable employment opportunities, where younger engineers can "cut their teeth" for a couple of years, get some solid experience in a company that is still largely entrepreneurial from a corporate culture perspective...and then perhaps move to a "pure startup" down the road...

Any SMEs in Germany/Europe come to mind here, that have good management teams and who are hiring? working in the Galileo area for example?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Christian Lenz on March 21, 2008 at 11:41am: Burton,

Thanks for the clarification! In that case I would like to add LORAL to the list. Yes, the LORAL - having worked with them on a few projects in the last few years I got the impression that they operate a lot like a small company, despite their size.

Also, I would tell any aspiring engineer to look very closely at DARPA, NRL, and Draper Labs, all places where 'cool stuff' is being done (at least in some places) - and I get the impression that working a few years at these labs gives you not only access to some of the most advanced space technology, but also links you into a very effective network. CL; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Burton Lee on March 21, 2008 at 11:47am: Its very hard to get into DARPA as a staff member unless one of the program managers brings you in...and its even tougher to be hired as a program manager....they are highly selective...the best avenue into DARPA that ive found is to get yourself hired as a SETA (System Engineering and Technical Assistance) consultant by a DARPA contractor...SETAs advise DARPA program managers and can have a large amount of influence on the direction of such programs.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sten-Christian Pedersen on March 22, 2008 at 8:13pm: Hey there,
What do you mean by Galileo Area?

Cheers; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Burton Lee on March 22, 2008 at 10:18pm: Galileo is Europe's response to the US GPS and Russian Glonass navigation systems. Its a new satellite constellation intended to provide European companies and countries with a solid competitive platform in international information and satellite technology, innovation and commerce. Its very big, very complex, has suffered some setbacks, but will very likely move forward. Galileo has attracted the interest of a large number of Euroean SMEs, which is why I included it in the list of markets that are spawning startup companies in Europe likely to engage in new hiring during 2008. Keep an eye on it!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Sten-Christian Pedersen on March 23, 2008 at 6:27am: I see. I just wonder if you where looking for a specific geo area, but now I understand. I'm working as operations manager at one of the worlds biggest satellite ground station for earth observation satellites. The company name is Kongsberg Satellite Services and the location for the ground station I'm working at is far north at 78deg. On this constillation we also support the Galileo ground network, by building a Galileo ground station segment. I'm the project manager for this establishment. In addition to the ESA project Galileo, we also support NASA, Iridium, DLR, JAXA, ISRO, CMA and other. Find more about my company at www.ksat.no.

Yes, I'm agree that if you are looking for companies that are hiring SMEs with space background, keep an eye on the European marked as well. It is growing.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gregory Emsellem on March 23, 2008 at 10:01am: I know a great entrepreneur that launched the first aerospace company in Portugal (to my knowledge) called LusoSpace. I was told they recently got a large ESA contract.

by the way, Europe is definitely not a nurturing place for start-ups. Moreover as far as financing goes, european VC are extremely risk-averse and much less likely to fund any start-up and even less Aerospace ones.
So it is not a surprise that aerospace start-up are hard to find there... instead I would look in asia (Especially in japan where I've heard of serious plan for space tourism); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Gregory Emsellem on March 25, 2008 at 11:31am: just a short fix about a small european company currently hiring

Spacebel, Belgium
spacecraft manufacturer

I heard they were looking for some engineers...; ▶ Reply to This