Some Tesla Gigafactory workers will have to work through Thanksgiving as the company pushes to make 7,000 Model 3s per week and keep the company profitable

Wednesday, November 21, 2018 Tesla

Tesla's Gigafactory will stay open over Thanksgiving as the company pushes to reach CEO Elon Musk's production goal of 7,000 Model 3s a week.

According to an internal email viewed by Business Insider, most Gigafactory workers will be able to observe Thanksgiving Day, but a few "mission critical areas" will remain open, meaning some employees must work.

"For Thanksgiving, we will be working in Model 3 Module and Pack Production," said the email, sent November 12. "We're asking for volunteers to help us support these areas. Managers will follow up with each critical area to develop the volunteer list."

It added: "All of our hourly and non-exempt team members who work a Tesla holiday will receive 8.0 hours of holiday pay in addition to pay for hours worked on those days. We greatly appreciate everyone who's able to help and in turn will try to make it festive and rewarding for those that volunteer."

A Tesla spokesperson said that the Gigafactory shifts on Thanksgiving were not added to meet production, rather, they were existing shifts. The spokesperson said that if someone assigned to a mandatory shift wanted off, they could potentially swap with a volunteer.

Tesla posted a profit during its third quarter, something it had done only twice since becoming a public company in 2010.

However, the company failed to reach its goal of producing 5,000 Model 3s a week. (It averaged 4,300 a week.)

Now Musk is upping the ante, in part because the company has said it will sell less expensive — and thus lower-margin — versions of the Model 3 going forward, so it needs to increase volume.

Document Inpired from : Business Insider

NASA Brings Mars Landing, First in Six Years, to Viewers Everywhere Nov. 26

NASA

This illustration shows a simulated view of NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander firing retrorockets to slow down as it descends toward the surface of Mars.

Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

NASA's Mars Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander is scheduled to touch down on the Red Planet at approximately 3 p.m. EST Nov. 26, and viewers everywhere can watch coverage of the event live on NASA Television, the agency's website and social media platforms.

Launched on May 5, InSight marks NASA's first Mars landing since the Curiosity rover in 2012. The landing will kick off a two-year mission in which InSight will become the first spacecraft to study Mars' deep interior. Its data also will help scientists understand the formation of all rocky worlds, including our own.

InSight is being followed to Mars by two mini-spacecraft comprising NASA’s Mars Cube One (MarCO), the first deep-space mission for CubeSats. If MarCO makes its planned Mars flyby, it will attempt to relay data from InSight as it enters the planet’s atmosphere and lands.

InSight and MarCO flight controllers will monitor the spacecraft's entry, descent and landing from mission control at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, where all landing events will take place.

Broadcast Schedule (all times Eastern)

Times and speakers are subject to change. Media can participate in the news conferences by phone. Plus, media and the public can ask questions on social media during the events by tagging them with #askNASA.

Wednesday, Nov. 21

• 1 p.m. – News conference: Mission engineering overview
• 2 p.m. – News conference: Mission science overview

Sunday, Nov. 25

• 1 p.m. – News conference: Final prelanding update
• 4 p.m. – NASA Social: InSight team Q&A

Monday, Nov. 26: Landing Day

• 6 to 10 a.m. – Live interviews with mission experts
  • To book an interview, media must contact Mark Petrovich at mark.petrovich@jpl.nasa.gov or 818-393-4359.
• 2 to 3:30 p.m. – Live landing commentary on the NASA TV Public Channel
  • An uninterrupted, clean feed from cameras inside JPL Mission Control, with mission audio only, will be available on the NASA TV Media Channel.
• No earlier than 5 p.m. – Post-landing news conference

Public Viewing

About 80 live viewing events for the public to watch the InSight landing will take place around the world. For a complete list of landing event watch parties, visit:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/watch-in-person/

For a full list of websites broadcasting InSight landing events, go to:

https://mars.nasa.gov/insight/timeline/landing/watch-online/

An InSight landing press kit is available online at:

https://go.nasa.gov/insight_pk

 Follow the mission on social media at:

https://twitter.com/NASAInSight

https://facebook.com/NASAInSight

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Document inspired from: NASA Press release