Everything that happens at the launch site: countdowns, range safety, weather calls, fueling, pad crews, and getting boosters back from the sea.
Top pay: highest pay, longest training
Launch Director: Has the final say on whether a rocket launches, after polling every team in the countdown. Typical pay $180k.
Launch Conductor: Runs the countdown script, leading the team step by step through fueling and final checks. Typical pay $140k.
Launch Range Safety Officer: Watches a rocket's path in real time and is ready to trigger its self-destruct system if it veers toward people. Typical pay $130k.
Spaceport Director: Runs a commercial spaceport, like those in Florida, Texas, New Mexico, Virginia, or Alaska. Typical pay $160k.
Mid pay: solid pay, degree or apprenticeship
Launch Weather Officer: Forecasts weather for rocket launches, including lightning, upper-level winds, and ocean conditions for booster recovery. Typical pay $97k.
Range Instrumentation Engineer: Maintains the radars, cameras, and antennas that track rockets during flight. Typical pay $105k.
Launch Pad Closeout Crew Member: The last people to see astronauts before launch: they strap crews into their seats and close the hatch. Typical pay $80k.
Ground Support Equipment Technician: Maintains the launch pad machinery: fuel pumps, umbilicals, water deluge systems, and transporters. Typical pay $65k.
Launch Site Crane Operator: Lifts and stacks rocket stages and spacecraft, some of the most expensive objects ever moved by crane. Typical pay $65k.
Propellant Farm Operator: Stores and pumps huge amounts of super-cold liquid oxygen, methane, and other propellants at launch sites. Typical pay $70k.
Rocket Sled Test Engineer: Straps missiles, ejection seats and parachutes onto rocket sleds that race down miles of rail at up to eight times the speed of sound. Typical pay $100k.
Starter: fastest way in
Booster Recovery Ship Crew: Works on the ships that catch rocket boosters and fairings at sea and bring them back to port. Typical pay $52k.
Launch Photographer: Captures rocket launches with remote cameras placed right next to the pad. Typical pay $42k.
Range Hazard Area Patrol: Clears boats, people, and aircraft out of danger zones before a launch. Typical pay $42k.
Career Universe is an early version. Pay, training and AI-risk figures are estimates to start your own research, not verified facts. The research was written with AI research assistants, checked by validation scripts and spot-checked by hand. Check anything important with schools, employers and official sources. How the numbers work.