Spread out over 600 acres in central Texas, the SpaceX Rocket and Development Test Facility offers a real glimpse into the future of space travel. To go along with this amazing adventure, Space X has gone as far as even outfitting its buildings with exciting names such as The Blockhouse and Dragon Rider, both of which are cleaned by Jani-King franchisees.
“Each day our franchisees clean the Space X main administration building along with the main operations building called ‘The Blockhouse’ which is the control center, filled with large television screens and computer monitors,” says Michael Noe, Regional Sales Director for Jani-King of Austin. “The other support buildings such as Dragon Rider, Jam and Hangar are spread throughout the Space X compound and we are contracted to clean those buildings several times each week.”
According to Noe, all workers completed a basic background check prior to being approved to work on-site and multiple shifts were set-up as per the guidelines of the account. “The shifts are from 4:00a.m to 12:00p.m., 8:00a.m. to 5:00p.m. and 12:00p.m to 8:00p.m. Monday through Friday. There is also one weekend shift from 8a.m to 5p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.”
Included with the contract are four corporate owned apartments that are located nearby and all restorative floor work such as carpet cleaning, stripping and refinishing is billed separately and completed on a quarterly basis. Jani-King also provides all consumable supplies including paper products, soap, trash liners and more.
SpaceX has two rocket test facilities: the SpaceX Rocket Development and Test Facility in McGregor, Texas and a leased VTVL (vertical takeoff, vertical landing) test facility at Spaceport America in southern New Mexico. All SpaceX rocket engines are tested on rocket test stands, and low-altitude VTVL flight testing of the Falcon 9 Grasshopper v1.0 test vehicle are done at McGregor. In addition, the McGregor facility is used for post-flight disassembly and defueling of the Dragon spacecraft.
Although SpaceX builds all of its own rocket engines and thrusters at its Hawthorne headquarters in California, they must all pass through McGregor where the company tests each new engine off of the assembly line, as well as those being developed for future missions to orbit and beyondbefore each one can be used on a flight mission.
About SpaceX
SpaceX designs, manufactures and launches advanced rockets and spacecraft. The company was founded in 2002 to revolutionize space technology, with the ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.
