Hawthorne Press Tribune The Weekly Newspaper of Hawthorne Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - August 4, 2016 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals.......................5 Classifieds............................2 Community Briefs...............2 Film Review..........................2 Hawthorne Happenings....3 Legals.............................4,6-7 Looking Up...........................7 Pets........................................8 Police Reports.....................3 Seniors..................................4 Sports....................................5 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 71˚/64˚ Saturday Sunny 71˚/64˚ Sunday Sunny 72˚/64˚ Protecting America on the World’s Ocean Machinery Repairman 3rd Class Hamali Enriquez from Los Angeles, re-threads a valve stem in USS John C. Stennis’ (CVN 74) repair shop. Providing a ready force supporting security and stability in the Indo-Asia-Pacific, John C. Stennis is operating as part of the Great Green Fleet on a regularly scheduled 7th Fleet deployment. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class DeAndrae McDaniel Local Aerospace Industry On a Comeback Trajectory By Rob McCarthy The Southern California aerospace industry is more diversified than ever thanks to the private-sector companies SpaceX in Hawthorne and Virgin Galactica in Long Beach, and employment in the aviation sector is expected to grow by thousands of jobs in the next decade. Recent events and media reports signal a rebound for the aerospace industry, which reached its height of employment in 1990 when 270,000 people designed, tested and built airplanes and provided technical support for U.S. government-funded space missions. No one expects the local air and space industries - now employing 92,000 people - to reach the dizzying heights of the Cold War 1980s, but observers say the industry is healthier because of newcomers like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactica, and the unmanned drone sector here. “It’s not as big as it was 50 years ago, but there’s still a substantial,” author Peter Westwick told the Los Angeles Times in a recent article about the prospects for the region’s aerospace. Westwick, who wrote “Blue Sky Metropolis” and teaches history at the University of Southern California, pointed out that aerospace has always been cyclical, with hiring ups and downs tied to federal contracts for military aircraft and missile-defense weaponry and systems. Private space-launch services have reenergized the waning aerospace economy, creating jobs in Hawthorne and Long Beach for engineers, flight specialists, technicians and support staff. Current job listings for SpaceX in Hawthorne cover the gamut, from avionics guidance to supply-chain positions. SpaceX rockets do a brisk business lifting satellites into orbit, though the company says its core mission is someday to enable humans to live on other planets. SpaceX, which was founded in 2002, has more than 4,000 employees in California, Florida, Texas, Virginia and Washington, D.C., according to its web site. Musk’s rocket-development and space-delivery service maintains its headquarters in Hawthorne, and Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc is one of two launch facilities. The other launch site is at Cape Canaveral. The company had 215 open positions at the start of August, according to SpaceX’s website. The job categories included avionics guidance, navigation and control; avionics hardware design and systems integration; launch engineering; materials engineering; mission management, manufacturing and production; propulsion and rocket launch, and software development. SpaceX also needs specialists in information technology, manufacturing and quality assurance, space operations, supply-chain management; structural engineering, design and analysis, according to the company. A sizable number of jobs are unfilled for manufacturing and production technicians and skilled trades, and for business and administrative operations. SpaceX is developing the Falcon Heavy rocket, which Popular Science magazine called “the mightiest rocket in the world … only NASA’s Saturn V, which sent Americans to the moon, has ever generated more power.” The two-stage rocket is due to launch later this year, and will carry a tremendous weight - equivalent to a fully loaded 737 passenger jet - into low orbit. The engines at liftoff will produce enough thrust to power 18 separate 747s at once, according to the company. There’s a lot riding on SpaceX’s next-generation rocket, as Popular Science noted. “The rocket’s success is critical for both SpaceX and the U.S. space program,” the magazine said. SpaceX itself acknowledges that the first planned mission to send satellites aloft for the Air Force is a first step toward a more futuristic mission. “Falcon Heavy was designed from the outset to carry humans into space and restores the possibility of flying missions with crew to the Moon or Mars,” the Hawthornebased space service says. The Falcon Heavy rocket is capable of carrying the company’s Dragon spacecraft, which was used in 2012 to shuttle cargo to the International Space Station. The U.S. Air Force and Saudi Arabian government have signed contracts for Falcon Heavy missions to launch their satellites. Elon Musk isn’t the only billionaire with skin in the Southern California high-stakes gamble on space tourism and exploration. Virgin Galactic’s founder Branson and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s Vulcan Aerospace “have their founders’ deep pockets and personal commitments to fuel ambitious plans, such as missions to Mars or sending tourists into space,” the Times wrote. The workforce at Virgin Galactica, which maintains operations in Long Beach and the Mojave Desert, is on just such a mission. Its 200 employees, including rocket scientists, engineers and designers, are focusing to create “something new and lasting: the world’s first commercial spaceline” that can fly astronauts and average Joes alike to explore new frontiers. A check of Virgin Galactica’s job openings on Aug. 1 found listings for engineers in avionics, launch, mechanical, manufacturing, production composites, propulsion and software development. Non-engineering positions were being offered in aircraft systems, contracts administration, environmental health and safety, and technicians for development, launch and propulsion Virgin Galactica’s operations include sites in Las Cruces, N.M., and Washington, D.C. As many as 700 “future astronauts” paid deposits to ride aboard Virgin Galactica’s SpaceShipTwo, the company said. The would-be space travelers hail from more than 50 different countries, and range from 10 to 90 years old. The SpaceShipTwo was designed to carry six passengers and two pilots with enough room to “enough space “to allow for an out-of-seat zero gravity experience as well as plenty of large windows for the amazing views back to Earth,” the company said in 2005, fully expecting to begin space flights in 2015. The fourth powered flight on Oct. 31, 2014, killed the copilot and injured the pilot when the SpaceShipTwo broke apart during re-entry. An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board determined the accident was caused by the vehicle’s re-entry system deploying too early. The next version of SpaceShipTwo, which See Local Aerospace, page 8
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