How to Get An Aerospace & Defense Internship in El Segundo

There is a strip of Los Angeles County running from the south edge of the airport down to Long Beach that contains more aerospace employment per square mile than anywhere else in the United States. El Segundo sits at the top of it and the city describes itself, without much modesty and with a reasonable claim, as the aerospace capital of the world.

If you are a student trying to work out where to point an application, the density is the point. You can be within a twenty mile stretch of the national security space enterprise, the largest private launch manufacturer in the world, several defence primes and a whole tier of startups founded by people who left those companies.

Roughly twenty miles end to end, which is fifteen minutes at six in the morning and a great deal longer at any other time.

El Segundo itself

The anchor is the government and the institution that supports it. Los Angeles Air Force Base sits in the middle of town and hosts Space Systems Command, which is the organisation that buys and fields most of the United States military's space capability. Directly alongside it is the Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development centre staffed heavily with doctorates whose job is independent technical judgement on national security space programmes.

That pairing is unusual and it explains the rest of the town. Around it sit Boeing's satellite operation, Millennium Space Systems, and a long tail of suppliers. The city's own economic development material claims that more than half of all satellites and vehicles in space were manufactured in El Segundo, which is a marketing line rather than an audited statistic, though the shape of the claim is not absurd given the history.

More recently the same streets have filled with startups. Varda took over a former Mattel plant of roughly two hundred thousand square feet on East Mariposa Avenue to build spacecraft that manufacture pharmaceutical crystals in orbit, and its founder is a former SpaceX avionics engineer, which is a fairly representative origin story for the neighbourhood.

For an intern, the Aerospace Corporation and the smaller startups are interesting for opposite reasons. The former offers analysis work of a depth you will not find in industry and a culture that takes mentorship seriously. The latter offers the chance to own something outright because there is nobody else to do it.

Hawthorne

SpaceX was founded in El Segundo in 2002 and has since moved its corporate headquarters to Texas, but the Hawthorne factory remains the centre of Falcon manufacturing and a very large employer. For most students in Southern California this is the single most applied to address in the region, with all that implies about the odds.

Redondo Beach and the middle of the corridor

Northrop Grumman's space business occupies a substantial campus in Redondo Beach, working on satellite and classified programmes. Impulse Space, founded by SpaceX's first employee and long time propulsion lead, is nearby.

Between and around these sit the suppliers, in Torrance, Carson and Gardena, doing machining, composites, harnessing, test and environmental qualification. Students overlook this tier almost entirely and should not. A summer at a shop that actually makes flight hardware teaches you manufacturing constraints in a way that no amount of time in a programme office will, and you will be one of very few applicants.

Long Beach, or Space Beach

The southern end has acquired its own nickname and its own character, weighted towards launch and toward younger companies. Relativity Space, Rocket Lab's American operations, Vast and SpinLaunch are all in this stretch. The culture skews closer to a startup than a prime, which suits some people enormously and suits others not at all.

The part nobody tells students about, which is the money

The corridor pays well and costs more. Rent within a sensible commute of El Segundo or Hawthorne is among the more expensive in the country, and a summer sublet in the beach cities will take a serious share of an intern wage.

So when you compare offers, compare what you keep rather than what you earn. A housing stipend of a thousand dollars a month is worth more than a few dollars an hour on the rate. Ask specifically whether housing support is a stipend, a reimbursement or corporate housing the employer arranges, because those are three different things and recruiters use the words loosely.

On the commute, take it seriously before you sign a lease. The corridor is served badly by public transport and the 405 is exactly as bad as its reputation. Living in Inglewood, Torrance or Lawndale rather than the beach cities is materially cheaper and frequently a shorter drive. Several of the larger employers run compressed schedules where you get every other Friday off, which is worth asking about since it removes ten commutes from your summer without changing your pay.

How to work the cluster

The density is an advantage you should actually use. Applications go in during August through October for the following summer, and once you are physically in the area for one internship you are within driving distance of thirty other employers, which makes coffee with an engineer at a different company a realistic thing to arrange rather than a fantasy.

The other cluster effect worth knowing is that people move between these companies constantly, and the startups are largely staffed by people who came out of SpaceX, Northrop and the Aerospace Corporation. A good summer at any one of them makes you legible to all the others, which is not true of an internship in a more isolated part of the industry.

Frequently asked questions

Which aerospace companies are in El Segundo?

The Aerospace Corporation, Space Systems Command at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Boeing's satellite operation, Millennium Space Systems, Varda, Phase Four and a substantial supplier base, with SpaceX in adjacent Hawthorne and Northrop Grumman in Redondo Beach.

Is El Segundo really the aerospace capital of the world?

It is the city's own description of itself. The density of national security space work there is genuinely unusual, though Seattle, Huntsville and the Washington DC area would all contest the title on different grounds.

What is Space Beach?

A nickname for Long Beach at the southern end of the corridor, reflecting the concentration of commercial launch and space startups there including Relativity Space, Rocket Lab, Vast and SpinLaunch.

Can I afford an internship in El Segundo?

Usually, but only if you plan the housing. Rates in the corridor are above the national average for interns and many employers add housing support, though the beach cities are expensive enough to absorb it. Living slightly inland is the standard answer.

Do these roles require US citizenship?

Many do. Anything touching national security space is export controlled and often requires a clearance, which needs citizenship. Some commercial work is more open, so check each posting rather than each company.

Do I need a car?

Effectively yes. Public transport across the corridor is poor and most sites have limited access without one.

Browse current openings across the corridor on aerospace and space internships and defense and national security roles, filtered by location.

Worth reading next: how much aerospace internships pay, which matters more than usual here, and when to apply for the summer cycle.

Sources: El Segundo economic development materials for the city's own characterisation of its aerospace base; Los Angeles Times reporting on Varda's El Segundo facility; Built In Los Angeles on the Long Beach cluster; company locations as published by the employers. Company presence changes, so verify before planning a move.