
SpaceX Layoffs Include Positions at California Headquarters - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-01-13/spacex-layoffs-include-577-positions-at-california-headquarters
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shaklee3
Looks like no engineering jobs, but mostly technicians and assembly. This
makes me think the launch cadence of 2019 is taking its toll.

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nickik
Why? The whole point of reuse was that you dont need so many boosters for so
many launches. The will keep building new once but they are no longer
production constraint.

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shaklee3
Because the types of jobs I mentioned are mostly for prepping the launch
vehicle, the launch site, and all the logistics surrounding that. If they
aren't launching nearly as many, then they don't need as many of these people.
engineering still needs to be there to make the next rocket.

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Tempest1981
Earlier discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18888641](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18888641)
(500+ comments)

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samfisher83
Sending everyone home and then waiting to find out if you have a job via email
sounds terrible. Does anyone else do this?

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syntaxing
Not sure if this is better but I heard of people coming into work and no one
is able to log in to find out that half the staff is being laid off. Also I
have heard where you can't badge in one morning and then security escorts your
to HR. This is prevalent particularly in the defense industry since they are
worried about sabotage. Though this is all hearsay from Senior Mechanical
Engineers that I met throughout my years. I have been warned many times to
only bring enough to work where you can carry out in a box. I know colleagues
who had their stuff in a plastic tote at all times (like valuable reference
books) so they are always ready to leave at any time.

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dvh
I'm really not sure I understand this layoff, will they be cancelling some of
the projects?

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heyjudy
The launch market for commercial customers is very small, and any hint of
economic downturn hits capital asset investment (ie satellites) proactively.
To me, this sounds like another ominous indicator of an imminent economic
downturn.

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dotancohen
This is more an indicator that almost everything that needs to go up, has
already gone up.

Notice that one of SpaceX's largest clients, Iridium, just completed their new
constellation. That was eight Falcon 9 launches. Iridium is done, they don't
need any more launches. Likewise for other large SpaceX clients.

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anoncoward111
On a totally unrelated note, I wad thoroughly surprised at how cheap satellite
internet has become. If you spend $300 on a Garmin device and $50 a month, you
get unlimited global text messages receiving/sending.

Considering that I spend $30 a month for Verizon prepaid, where the cell
coverage is _hilariously_ spotty and data is 1kb/s, an extra $20 a month seems
entirely worth it, especially if you go off the beaten path like I do in
random countries.

Hooray commerce!

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londons_explore
From their point of view, their SMS capacity is effectively unlimited, so the
marginal cost of having you as a customer is zero.

Since there are no real competitors, pricing simply becomes 'maximize the area
under the price-demand curve'.

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anoncoward111
If the entire world was sending text messages through their satelites, they
wouldn't really have a bottleneck?

Not even trying to start an argument, I didn't think they had that much
bandwidth. I suppose they do voice calls but definitely not video or pictures?

I would be thoroughly, thoroughly, infinitely pleased to switch to a satellite
only texting service. I've been seriously considering just making the switch
now and porting all of my news consumption habits to text files that are
texted to me.

Their lowest tiers I think are 19.99 a month but only allow 10-40 text
messages?

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londons_explore
Quick back of the envelope calculation... Lets assume 10 texts sent per person
per day worldwide on average. Lets also assume everyone has a phone (far from
true, but hey). Assume an SMS message is 160 bytes, but with compression is
significantly less, but there is also connection/presence metadata - so
cancelling out. So we have 1600 bytes * 7 billion people. Thats spread across
66 satellites. That totals 2 megabytes per satellite per second. Very doable.

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anoncoward111
I'm going to contact them about a texting only package where they disable
voice capability and you have to oay one year upfront at like 20 bux a month!

