What SpaceX's President Just Did Will Blow Your Mind!

Behind every great person, there are others working hard behind the scenes. These individuals often receive less credit than the main figures, but their contributions are invaluable. In SpaceX's case, this person is Gwynne Shotwell. As the President and Chief Operating Officer of SpaceX, Shotwell is the driving force behind the company's remarkable growth. What she recently did with the Starship project makes her legacy even bigger. We are here to talk about this development in this video. Before we delve any deeper, please make sure to subscribe to our channel for future updates about Starship and SpaceX's other groundbreaking achievements.
If you’re wondering, “Who is this woman?” then you’re probably not a huge SpaceX fan. Gwynne Shotwell is the most important person at SpaceX, right after Musk. Before joining SpaceX, she worked at the Aerospace Corporation, where she gained a lot of experience in technical and managerial roles. She joined SpaceX in 2002, just a year after it was founded. At that time, SpaceX wasn’t the big company it is today.
Back then, SpaceX was a small startup with big dreams but not a lot of resources. The company was struggling to prove itself, and its future was uncertain. Musk knew he needed someone with both technical skills and business sense to help the company succeed. He found that person in Gwynne Shotwell.
In the early 2000s, SpaceX was facing a lot of challenges. Their first rocket, Falcon 1, was still in development, and money was tight. They were working on a small budget, trying to build a reliable and cost-effective rocket. Every failed test added more pressure but, Shotwell made a big difference from the start. She joined as Vice President of Business Development and one of her first big tasks was to get contracts and funding for a rocket that hadn’t even flown yet. This was a huge challenge. She had to convince government agencies, satellite companies, and other potential clients to take a chance on SpaceX. Her ability to sell the vision and potential of SpaceX was crucial in getting those early contracts.
She managed to secure SpaceX’s first significant contracts and these early wins provided the money and credibility SpaceX needed to keep developing. In 2006, SpaceX signed a $278 million contract with NASA to develop the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon spacecraft. This was a turning point for SpaceX.
As the company grew, Shotwell’s role expanded. She became President, taking care of the day-to-day operations and making sure SpaceX met its goals.
During her leadership, SpaceX grew from just a small startup to the most dominant space company in the world. They proved everyone wrong with their first successful launch of the Falcon 9 rocket in June 2010.
Seeing the success of the Falcon 9, SpaceX decided to develop the Falcon Heavy. The idea was to create a rocket that could carry larger payloads to space. Falcon Heavy made its debut on February 6, 2018, launching from the same pad at Kennedy Space Center that once served Apollo missions. This launch was particularly memorable because it carried Musk's personal Tesla Roadster into space.
Now, both Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy have become among the most successful rockets in the world. Falcon 9, in particular, has been a workhorse for SpaceX, becoming the most frequently used rocket. In 2023 alone, it was launched more than 90 times.
Above everything else, Starship represents the biggest success that Gwynne Shotwell has been a part of. Musk first introduced the concept of what would become Starship in 2016. Starship is designed to be a fully reusable transportation system capable of carrying both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, the Moon, Mars, and beyond. It stands at 121 meters tall and 9 meters in diameter, making it the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed. When fully reusable, Starship has a payload capacity of a one hundred and 50 metric tonnes, and 2 hundred and 50 metric tonnes in an expendable configuration.

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[ethercreatures]

I wonder who she is personally. I get a sense she is really grounded. Good for her, nice to see a woman who earns her position. Much respect Gwynne!

[DaveBuildsThings]

I use Starlink for my Internet. It might be a bit more money than many are willing to pay ($150 CND/month in Canada where I live) but because I live in the county, it was either that with high download speeds or 500mb/min at best download speeds using DSL. Our DSL was more or less just a tad better than dial-up. I have never regretted signing on. Such a big change from DSL as if I just entered the information age. You go Startlink and SpaceX! 👍

(Edited for spelling)

[mitchcumstein]

There ARE great business women out there and no one takes anything away from them. One of my personal favorites is Shelia Hamp

[chrischeshire]

Excellent, informative video. Appreciate the SpaceX dates in their history.

[pierrec]

Another example of government-corporate revolving door where a civil servant funnels massive funds to their new corporate masters.

[dionysus]

Most SpaceX launches are StarLink which brings in no revenue for the launch. The plan is for StarLink to fund the StarShip program. StarShip has massive payload capabilities but how many customers need that much? The goal is to colonize Mars but SpaceX will need to survive for decades for that to happen. The new V2 StarLink is much larger and will provide cell service to normal phones. It also needs StarShip to launch. It will take a few more years before StarShip can launch, deploy cargo, and land reliably. It will take another couple of years to get enough V2 StarLinks deployed and then I think the profits will start coming in. I don't see a Mars landing with StarShip until the 2030s. By that time NASA will have its nuclear Mars shuttle running and can get to Mars in a month vs 6 months for StarShip. I think the final approach will be StarShip to get to LEO, the nuclear shuttle to get from LEO to LMO (low Mars orbit), and then more StarShips in Mars orbit to ferry astronauts and cargo to the surface.

[mikem]

So she just didnt do anything mind blowing except enabling spaced to make starlink profitable and negotiate launch new then.

[buddyb]

SpaceX was/is good when it comes to comercial launch. But the promise was 10% of the cost of a NASA launch. Not happening. EVER! Then came "Starship." And part of SpaceX moved into LaLa land! Wasn't this lady the one that said "point to point" Starship WAS going to happen? Along with Elon's "vision" of tens, hundreds of flights per day? (Not even including his flights to Mars BS.) So far, Starship has become the world's biggest firework, and litterer. It's over budget and under performing by magnitudes! But hey, it isn't Musk's money he's wasting, it's ours! And where is the Starship lunar lander? (Which has already been bought and paid for by taxpayers at the direction of another Musk (ex NASA) employee.) So, shill much? There are many hard working people at SpaceX and even on Stardhip; too bad the Starship folks are being led by the potheaded pied piper and his deluded sycophants.

[larky]

Oh. I was certain that she was going to announce that they were ready to implement Point to Point. She guaranteed that it was happening so unless she is a liar like her boss I'm still waiting to book a flight for a 30 minute journey from Toronto to Japan.

[MrShobar]

E-Lawn knew he needed someone with "technical and business sense" principally because he has neither.