Best places to look for space employment?

[wolf_raptor5526]

Hey, I'm new to the boards here and am not sure if this is the right place to post this, but this board looks like it has a lot of interesting stuff regarding spaceflight...<br /><br />Anyway. I'm an aero engineering major at Syracuse, and am gonna graduate in May. My school networks with a few notable companies that do aerospace, like GE and Lockheed Martin, but for the most part I get the feeling that they aren't really into the SPACE field. <br /><br />I'm hearing all sorts of things about these private companies developing new solutions for launch vehicles, propulsion, and other things involving spaceflight and frankly, it seems like the better way to go rather than be stuck at a company working on something I don't really care about. I want to work on spacecraft, so can anyone recommend a good company that fits this description?<br /><br />Thanks.

 

[PistolPete]

To be honest with you, it's not my field of expertise, but my recommendation is to find the web sites of the companies you would like to work for, find a phone and/or an email address and start and start bugging the hell out of them until they have no choice but to hire you to get some peace and quiet. <img src="/images/icons/wink.gif" /><br /><br />BTW, I hear SpaceX (http://www.spacex.com/careers.php) and Bigelow Aerospace (http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/multiverse/careers.php) are hiring. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p><em>So, again we are defeated. This victory belongs to the farmers, not us.</em></p><p><strong>-Kambei Shimada from the movie Seven Samurai</strong></p> </div>

 

[jimfromnsf]

Lockheed Martin is one of the largest space companies.

 

[jimfromnsf]

Look here<br />http://www.aia-aerospace.org/members.cfm<br /><br />ULA is not listed

 

[propforce]

<font color="yellow">I want to work on spacecraft, so can anyone recommend a good company that fits this description? </font><br /><br />There are only 4 "legit" companies in the U.S. that design and build spacecrafts (satellites), they are:<br /><br />Lockheed Martin (Missile & Space Division in Sunnyvale, CA)<br />They are also the winner for NASA's new Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) to go back to the Moon.<br /><br />Loral Space (somewhere near Sunnyvale, CA)<br />They build mostly "less expensive" commercial satellites<br /><br />Boeing Satellite Systems (El Segundo, CA)<br />Formerly known as Hughes Space & Commumication. They are perhaps the LARGEST builder of commercial communication satellites. <br /><br />Northrop Grunmann (Redondo Beach, CA)<br />Formerly known as TRW. They build mostly military satellites. <br /><br /><br />You notice that they're all located in California? <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /><br /><br />I believe most, if not all above, companies do campus recruiting. You may want to check with your college placement office to see if they visit your campus. You can also visit their website and see if they have any entry-level jobs posted.<br /><br />Now if you are an advantureous person and don't care for job security, there are many "start-up" companies that try to get into the launch or space business, SpaceX, Bigelow, etc. You can try them out as well. The advantage of small companies is that you'll get to do many different things. The disadvantage is that you'll get stucked doing many different things and specialize in none. But I encourage young engineers to get their hands dirty with actual hands-on experience, that you won't get to do in a bigger company like those above. Many of these "start-up" companies are also located in California <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /><br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[annodomini2]

Anyone got UK contacts outside of Surrey Satellite co. (Surrey universitY)? <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[jimfromnsf]

Lockheed Martin built scientific spacecraft in Denver<br />OSC (Dulles) now builds more commercial spacecraft than Boeing<br />Ball Aerospace (Boulder) builds more commercial noncomsat spacecraft than anyone<br /><br />Lockheed has a large comsat component facility in PA. <br />Boeing "was" the largest. Haven't sold many commercial birds since becoming Boeing<br /><br />GD builds spacecraft

 

[adrenalynn]

Satellites are the only "legit" space-craft? Whew. Don't tell Neil and Buzz!<br /><br />Aerojet would also be surprised to hear that they aren't legit, me thinks.<br /><br />They also recruit from schools. Direct linkage: http://jobs4-aerojet.icims.com/aerojet_jobs4/jobs/candidate/intro.jsp <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>.</p><p><font size="3">bipartisan</font>  (<span style="color:blue" class="pointer"><span class="pron"><font face="Lucida Sans Unicode" size="2">bī-pär'tĭ-zən, -sən</font></span></span>) [Adj.]  Maintaining the ability to blame republications when your stimulus plan proves to be a devastating failure.</p><p><strong><font color="#ff0000"><font color="#ff0000">IMPE</font><font color="#c0c0c0">ACH</font> <font color="#0000ff"><font color="#c0c0c0">O</font>BAMA</font>!</font></strong></p> </div>

 

[symbolite]

damn tell these companies to move over to the East Coast! <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[propforce]

<font color="yellow">damn tell these companies to move over to the East Coast! </font><br /><br />I heard one time that places are known for innovation & technology are the same places that's known to have open-minds and tolerances & acceptance to someone who's different. Ironically these are the same places where some great universities are known. Amazingly, many of these places are located on the west coast of United States <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[propforce]

<font color="yellow">Satellites are the only "legit" space-craft? Whew. Don't tell Neil and Buzz! </font><br /><br />You're right. I do apologize. Speaking of which, Lockheed Martin is building the new "space capsule" called the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) with NASA. This would be a good place to look if you'd like to design human spacecrafts.<br /><br />Aerojet has largely been reduced to the role of a propulsion supplier, rather than a spacecraft builder, in recent years. But their division in Redmond, Washington (home of Microsoft) is involved in supplying the CEV and its launch vehicle, the Ares 1, small rockets for attitude control. It's Sacramento facility, supplier of large rocket engines, has been working with the Russians to import their engines to this country. There are a lot of new & exciting things we have and still learning from the Russian's engines.<br /><br />But if you're interested in building launch vehicles, a.k.a. rockets, there are lot of companies you can look into. Rocketdyne, for example, maker of SSME, RS-68 and now the new J-2X for the Ares 1, is a good place to look and they're hiring right now. Oh I forgot to mention that they too are located in California <img src="/images/icons/cool.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[thereiwas]

And most of these companies will require some sort of background check and proof of U.S. citizenship.

 

[no_way]

Browse around on Hobbyspace. there are actually couple of banners up there for jobs. XCOR for example is hiring, so is Blue Origin.

 

[spacy600]

Spacedev is in North Carolina, and the Denver area.<br />As well as in San Diego.

 

[solarspot]

I know that this forum is largely American, but anyone know where in Canada I could work for a space-related organization? Or do I have to move to the states to do much spacecraft related work?