SpaceX is a GO!

Last week I woke up tremendously early, donned a nice jacket and slacks, and proceeded to hit the worst traffic I have ever encountered on the 405. I was on my way to SpaceX the company started in 2002 to create an inexpensive and reliable way to get cargo into space, and I was running ten minutes late.

I was there for an interview for the position of Systems Engineer. In fact I was there for 6 interviews that lasted a total of 5 hours.

The people I met, the mentality, the energy. It was quite an experience. The company has dotcom roots, meaning that Elon Musk the CEO/CTO was the former owner of such renowned internet startups as PayPal and Zip2. That unique energy of a startup company was there vibrating throughout the 5 buildings that are home to SpaceX– even though the company is now over five years old. People were cheerful and seemed to be enjoying themselves as they worked– I was even greeted by a friendly individual as I used the restroom. The kitchen was stocked with all sorts of goodies to munch on, and the cubicles were home to everyone– from vice presidents all the way down the ladder. The machine shop– at least the one I saw, seemed to be quite close to other offices. Hopefully that means that engineers worked very closely with machinists, which is fantastic because it’s a great dynamic.

The machine shop that I toured had giant mills and lathes shaping rocket nozzles out of huge pieces of copper. The scale of work being done there is gigantic in comparison to the minuscule parts the Balloon Project required. I got to see the full scale mock up of the Dragon capsule– which will be used to send people and cargo into space.

To make a long story short though, I had a great time there, and I’m proud to announce that a few days ago I was informed of some great news.

The company and I are working out a job offer right now, and it’s almost a done deal: Kosta Grammatis is going to be a Systems Engineer for SpaceX. What more could a boy of 21 fresh out of college ask for? Nothing else. This is a dream come true.

So what’s next you might ask? I will be packing my things, acquiring some sort of living accommodations, and moving off to El Segundo (close to the Los Angeles Airport). So much for the trip of destiny… I didn’t need to go very far for destiny to do its thing. There’s a bit of an irony here though, I was holding off on the trip of destiny because I was waiting for my personal business cards to arrive that I could use to give to potential employers. I guess you don’t need business cards.