Gwynne Shotwell talks about selling flight-proven rockets, Starship

SpaceX had its most successful year in 2020. Amid the pandemic, the company set a record for the total number of launches: 26. All of them hit their targets. The Crew Dragon spacecraft brought humans – Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken – into orbit for the first time. And then he did it again, with the Crew-1 mission in November. SpaceX has also made tangible progress on its next-generation spacecraft launch system.

Oh, and the company has also become the world’s largest satellite operator with its Starlink Internet service.

For SpaceX President and COO, Gwynne Shotwell, 2020 has indeed been a pivotal year. “It has been a year of highlights,” she said in an interview. “There are probably 10 things I would rethink this year that I would say extraordinary.”

However, launching astronauts safely was probably the most important. “Getting Bob and Doug into orbit and coming back safely, especially during that time, it was such a terrible time in the world, it was great,” she said.

Shotwell joined SpaceX a few months after Elon Musk founded the company in May 2002. Initially, his job was to sell launches on the small Falcon 1 rocket the company was developing. But over the years, Shotwell has earned Musk’s trust – and he has earned his – and seen his responsibilities grow. This year’s crew missions are the result of a nearly 15-year relationship SpaceX had with NASA to launch cargoes, then astronauts, to the International Space Station. Shotwell negotiated this first contract, signed in 2006, and has worked closely with NASA ever since. Attending the launch of Crew-1 was a special moment for her.

Sell ​​proven rockets in flight

Shotwell has also been busy working with commercial satellite clients and making them more and more comfortable with launching previously used rockets. The vast majority of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets now use already piloted first stages.

Unless a client has a strong case one way or the other, the decision of which booster to use is left to SpaceX. “You buy a launch service, and we’ll get you the best possible vehicle within the timeframe you need to fly,” she said. “And we basically put control in our hands.”

In truth, Shotwell said, it hasn’t been particularly difficult to convince customers to fly on flight-proven rockets. It was easier to sell customers on the technology than on the early Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. Indeed, with rockets, SpaceX has achieved what it promised to do: develop and fly reliable and good launchers. market.

“It was easier to sell ‘proven flights’ to customers than it was to sell Falcons,” she said. “Obviously people come to trust organizations and people to do what they say they will do, when you demonstrate that kind of story. So we said we were going to orbit with Falcon 1, and we did. We said we ‘I got into orbit with Falcon 9, and we did. We said we were going to get to Station, and we did. The sales pitch has therefore become much less difficult. “

Spatialship

Shotwell also began selling Starship’s yet unproven launch system for commercial launches. In March 2020, the company released a first “payload user guide” for the large rocket, and discussions are ongoing. However, Shotwell reiterated that the company is essentially selling its customers a launch capability, not a specific vehicle.

“We have signed deals where we can choose if it’s a Falcon or a Starship,” she said. “We want to provide launch services, and we want to provide them in the most cost effective way for us and our customers, and in the most reliable way for us and our customers. So we really want it to be in our hands. And we know that we have work to do with the insurance community, just like we did with Falcon 9, just as we did with the reuse of Falcon 9. So there is still work to be done. do, but I hope people believe that we are going to do what we intend to do. “

If there are technical issues with Starship and it’s late, Shotwell has said the company will be able to fall back on the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles. But she said SpaceX had already eliminated much of the risk with its Starship test program. Shotwell noted that the flight of the prototype SN8 Starship spacecraft in December addressed many concerns about the flight profile of the vehicle during a landing.

“We have certainly reduced the risk of this program quite massively with it,” she said of the theft. “You still have worries and scheduling issues, but the amount of flying equipment in Boca with this team is really impressive.” When asked if she thinks Starship will reach orbit in 2021, Shotwell replied, “I vote yes.”

Starship is the culmination of a lot of what SpaceX has worked for in its 18 year history. Shotwell took the plunge and joined the then unknown company because, like Musk, she believed there were faster and more efficient ways to do aerospace. With its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 programs, the company has endured growing challenges, but now with the Starship program, it can build on those lessons and move forward quickly. SpaceX is building Starship vehicles at a rate greater than one per month and will seek to accelerate that rate in 2021. The scale of the project and the speed at which the company is building these massive rockets are unprecedented in the space industry.

“We’re not doing it to embarrass people, but we’re certainly happy to provide examples of how industries and businesses can do better,” Shotwell said. “We’re not here to be negative – we’re here to provide objective evidence and truths that you can do better in this industry, and this industry deserves to be better.”