SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Wednesday applauded the president of his rocket manufacturing company after the latter detailed her vision for worldwide internet connectivity in about five years at a conference this week.
What Happened: “Gwynne is awesome,” Musk said on X. The CEO was responding to a snippet of Gwynne Shotwell‘s interview at the Mountain Connect broadband development conference.
Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002. When she interviewed to join the company then, Musk’s dream of enabling transportation capability to allow people to live on other planets sounded “insane,” Shotwell said at the conference. However, Shotwell is now optimistic and expects the company to enable the beginnings of a settlement on Mars in about 10 years from now.
The SpaceX president also envisioned connecting every individual who wants to be connected to the internet in about 5 years, with the help of the company’s Starlink satellite internet service and other technologies including fiber and fixed wireless.
“There should be no one on planet Earth that wants to be connected that isn’t connected and that is doable in 5 years. We could do it sooner than that too,” she said.
Shotwell admitted to being a Starlink user herself. She said that she put a Starlink Mini, a portable version of the standard Starlink hardware, on her car so she could talk to Musk while she drives in rural Texas.
Shotwell’s Role At SpaceX: Shotwell reportedly oversees nearly every team at the rocket manufacturing company, rather than CEO Elon Musk.
She reportedly oversees 21 executives, including those leading SpaceX's satellite internet business Starlink, Falcon launch business, and the development of Starship, according to The Information, citing an organizational chart obtained by the publication.
Musk, meanwhile, has only four executives reporting to him, including Shotwell. The other executives reporting to Musk are materials engineering executive Charles Kuehmann, Jacob McKenzie, who oversees the Raptor engines used in Starship, and Terrence O'Shaughnessy, who leads a special programs group focused on government projects.
Why It Matters: SpaceX achieved a valuation of $180 billion through a tender offer in December, making it one of the most valuable privately held companies. In comparison, the publicly listed aerospace company Boeing Co. has a market capitalization of only $100.58 billion.
SpaceX completed 67 missions using its Falcon launch vehicles as of the end of the second quarter, with its Falcon 9 workhorse alone accounting for 66 launches. The company is looking to launch 144 times in 2024, averaging twelve times per month.
For the entirety of 2023, SpaceX only completed 96 launches, marking a 57% year-on-year increase, not including two Starship test flights. The company’s launch numbers have been steadily increasing, with 26 launches in 2020, 31 in 2021, and 61 in 2022.
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Photo courtesy: SpaceX
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