Vast is performing environmental tests for the International Space Station. Relativity Space just snagged the former head of Google to lead the company and its efforts on the Terran R Rocket. And Rocket Lab is getting ready to launch its 64th medium-lift rocket.
The three companies, among others in the aerospace sector, have moved operations to Long Beach in recent years and have added thousands of jobs to the local economy.
But executives from the companies said at a lunch gathering in Long Beach Friday that their biggest concern is that the local skilled workforce won’t keep pace with the projects that they are undertaking.
Adam Spice, the chief financial officer for Rocket Lab, said innovating is not the hardest part in the space sector. It’s finding the labor and materials to build the rockets at scale once they are designed.
“Things don’t get easier in the business,” he said. “They get harder.”
Spice and others spoke during the Third Annual Space Beach luncheon hosted by the Long Beach Area Chamber of Commerce. The officials praised the mayor and city officials for being welcoming and accommodating in leasing land for the operations. The companies are mostly located near the airport, where Boeing and McDonnell Douglas manufactured military craft many years ago.
Mayor Rex Richardson, who has championed the city as “Space Beach,” said many of the companies that once had start-ups or small operations in Long Beach have since enlarged their footprint. “The growth is incredible,” he said.
But industry leaders said that the city’s output of qualified workers must keep pace with the private sector.
“Workforce is our biggest limiting force,” Spice said. “We’re nearing the point of not having enough workers.”
All three executives said the space industry moves fast; they need support systems — government and education — to keep up.
Josh Brost, chief revenue officer of Relativity Space, suggested a hybrid certificate program in which some of the requirements are waived in favor of on-the-job training. “Our needs are changing every week,” he said.
Roughly 6,000 workers are employed by aerospace companies in the city. Long Beach officials said $750 million in government contracts is now directed to work being performed here.