SpaceX says it is building a factory in Austin, Texas, to design systems that will help make satellite dishes, WiFi routers and other equipment for its Starlink satellite broadband network. The news comes from a post for an automation and control engineering position that was tagged in a story by a local news channel KXAN on Tuesday.
“To keep pace with global demand, SpaceX is breaking ground on a new modern manufacturing facility in Austin, TX,” the post posted. ‘The automation and control engineer will play a key role as we aim to manufacture millions of consumer-connected devices directly to customers (Starlink dishes, Wi-Fi routers, mounting hardware, etc.). ‘
The factory will apparently not make dishes and routers on site, but rather design systems that improve the manufacturing process. “They will specifically design and develop production line machinery control systems and software – ultimately meeting the toughest mechanical, software and electrical challenges associated with producing large volumes, while maintaining the focus on flexibility, reliability, maintenance and convenience. of use, “the post said.
Starlink is in beta and serves more than 10,000 customers and has asked the Federal Communications Commission for permission to deploy up to 5 million user terminals in the US. SpaceX calls this piece of hardware ‘Dishy McFlatface’, and it receives broadcasts from SpaceX’s low-earth satellites. Read our article on a breakdown of Dishy McFlatface for more details on the inside portions of the hardware, and this article for more photos of the dish in its full intact condition.
Starlink charged $ 99 a month plus a one-time fee of $ 499 for the user terminal, tripod mount, and router. Starlink recently began taking pre-orders for service that would be available in the second half of 2021.
Shipping to 25 countries this year
According to the new post, the successful applicant will work in Austin, but will spend up to 25 percent of the time at SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles “until [the] Austin facility is fully established. “The new engineer will have an impact on Starlink’s ability to ship hardware this year. The person will set, implement and maintain schedules and budgets to complete the project as we aim to ship to 25+ countries by the end of the year, ” reads the post.
The engineer will be expected to “design, develop and manage automation and manage projects to produce consumer electronics that are easy for people around the world to use, but technically very sophisticated – these include the first factory ideas, “The engineer will also set up the concept development of the peak and conceptual development of the equipment by carefully balancing the product specifications, process requirements, layout complexity, cost and delivery time constraints,” reads the post.
We asked SpaceX for more details on the 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 an answer.
The new SpaceX factory will be close to Tesla’s planned car factory in Austin. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk is also Tesla’s CEO.