Space X To Hire Hundreds Of People to Build Fleet of Satellites

An estimate ranging from several hundred to a thousand people in Seattle are expected to get hired to build a fleet of small satellites in Seattle.

Space X Chief Operating Executive Elon Musk disclosed his plans to create jobs for people, who can help him build small satellites, which he earlier said are crucial in the planned establishment of human settlements in Mars.

"We're going to try and do for satellites what we've done for rockets," the 43-year old billionaire said at a press conference at SpaceX headquarters.

In November, Musk and Google executive Greg Wyler announced their preliminary plans to build 700 satellites weighing less than 250 pounds.

Costing less than $1 million to produce, each satellite would fall in size between traditional communications satellites weighing several tons and the tiny shoebox-sized alternatives favored by modern startups.

The satellites would generate revenue that would go toward Musk's dream of colonizing Mars and teaching his team the details of space communication.

Building a commercial satellite business will provide the entrepreneur with revenue and communications know-how that will eventually serve his Martian aspirations, Bloomberg said.

Space X, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., is the first commercial rocket maker to deliver cargo to the International Space Station.

Since winning a contract from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in 2008, SpaceX has emerged as the lowest-cost launch provider in the commercial space industry.

This also made Seattle-based engineering office a competitor to aerospace titans Boeing Co. (B.A.) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (L.M.T.), which are NASA partners since the Apollo era.

Aside from creating Space X, Musk also co-founded the PayPal e-commerce website that was acquired by EBay Inc.

The South African, who received American citizenship in 2002, is also the CEO of Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA) and chairman of SolarCity Corp., the biggest installer of rooftop solar panels in the U.S.

Wyler, on the other hand, previously ran Google's satellite division before moving on to establish WorldVu Satellites.

He also owns a portion of the radio spectrum, which the satellites could use to provide Internet to previously inaccessible parts of the world.