Value chain · CLM-1071
In plain terms
Running the programme at full stretch was reckoned to employ about half a million people on the ground, nearly all of them in factories, with roughly a thousand in orbit at any moment.
The claim as recorded
Boeing's April 1980 operations paper is the programme's only whole-enterprise headcount: for "the 12th year of commercial operations (20 SPS's in operation)" - one new satellite and rectenna every 6 months, one EOTV every 45 days, "1 or 2 launches each day from three off-shore launch pads" with "1 million pound payloads" - the estimate is industrial complex and surface transportation 500,000; rectenna construction 2,100; launch and recovery site 6,425; LEO base space crews 460 and ground support 4,600; GEO base space crews 888 and ground support 8,880; SPS maintenance GEO base crews 600, mobile crew 85, ground support 6,850; SPS/rectenna/utility grid operations 7,700; operations control 2,996; total "542,000 (approx.)", with "Half of these crewmembers will be in space at any point in time", so 444 at the GEO construction base, 300 on maintenance and 230 at LEO in orbit at once; the construction papers put the GEO base at "in the order of 400" (JSC), "about 440" (Boeing) and "nearly 450 space workers ... on two daily shifts (10 hours each)" (Grumman), the LEO base at "approximately 200", and maintenance as "a visit to each SPS every six months" by a crew that "can visit and service 20 SPS's" on "a 90-day sortie", "4 to 5 days" each, satellites "shut down and the solar arrays turned away from the sun during maintenance".
Evidence behind this: T3, Boeing's operations abstract with a rendered manpower table and no method shown, alongside three construction papers' crew figures.
Scope and limits
An estimate with no method shown; the 500,000 industrial figure is not broken down; Miller's "31 day" per satellite and Woodcock's "4 to 5 days" are the same company's two numbers in the same session.
What it assumes
The halving of rostered crews to crews in orbit is the source's footnote applied as arithmetic on the stated figures.
Where it comes from
PDF p.344 / printed 322, Table 1 "SPS Program Manpower Estimate", render read: rows as stated; footnote as quoted. PDF p.341 / printed 319, normalised: "1) operation and maintenance of 20 satellites, 2) completion of a new SPS and its ground receiving antenna every 6 months, and 3) construction of electric cargo orbital transfer vehicles (EOTV's) at the rate of one vehicle every 45 days"; "The land sites are 3.2 x 18.7 km (nominal at 35 latitude) and each rectenna is 9.9 x 14 km"; "Heavy lift launch vehicles are loaded with 1 million pound payloads. There will be 1 or 2 launches each day from three off-shore launch pads". PDF p.342 / printed 320: "Over a 31 day period, defective components are removed and replaced with new ones" (sic, against Woodcock's 4 to 5 days); "The space crews work on a 6-day-per-week, 10-hours-per-day work schedule. They are returned to Earth after 90 days". PDF p.323 / printed 301: "a crew size in the order of 400"; "approximately 200 personnel"; "Ninety days appears to be a reasonable duty period". PDF p.326 / printed 304: "a construction and support crew of about 440"; "The LEO base crew required is roughly 200"; "After 90 days in zero-g, a crewperson will require 90 to 180 days on Earth"; "The POTV is shielded with 5 g/cm2". PDF p.325 / printed 303: the maintenance sentences as quoted, except "shut down and the solar arrays turned away from the sun during maintenance", which is on PDF p.326 / printed 304. PDF p.333 / printed 311: "nearly 450 space workers would be needed on two daily shifts (10 hours each)"; the base "3.44 km wide x 3.65 km long x 0.9 km deep" (PDF p.332 / printed 310).
Basis: people, by function, in the twelfth year of commercial operation with 20 satellites
Related records
- Answers question
- QST-015 not published in this release
Cite this
energyaperture.com/c/clm-1071
CLM-1071, Energy Aperture, as of 1980-04.
Connected records
Other published records linked to this one. A list, not a judgement.
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