Taylor Hill / Filmmagic
SpaceX enjoyed its most successful year in 2020. In the midst of the epidemic, the company set a record for the total number of launches: 26. All fulfill their purpose. The crew Dragon spacecraft flew Doug Hurley and Bob Behanken for the first time in human orbit. And then he did it again with the Crew-1 mission in November. SpaceX also made demonstrable progress on its next pay generation Starship launch system.
Oh, and the company also became the world’s largest satellite operator with its Starlink Internet service.
For Gwynn Shotwell, president and chief operating officer of SpaceX, 2020 was truly a watershed year. “It was a year of highlights,” he said in an interview. “There are probably 10 things I’ll look back on this year and say was phenomenal.”
However, launching the astronauts safely was the biggest. “Bob and Doug returned to orbit and safely, especially in that timeframe, it was such a terrible time in the world, it was great.”
Elon Musk joined Shotwell SpaceX in May 2002, a few months after the company was founded. Initially, his job was to sell launches on small Falcon 1 rockets the company was developing. But, over the years, Shawwell Towel gained Musk’s confidence – and he made his earnings and saw his responsibilities increase. As a result of this year’s crew mission, SpaceX will launch cargo first and then astronauts to the International Space Station, due to its nearly 15-year relationship with NASA. Shotwell previously negotiated the agreement, signed in 2006, and has worked closely with NASA ever since. Participating in the Crew-1 launch was a special moment for him.
Sale of a flight-proof rocket
Shotwell is also busy working with commercial satellite customers and making them more and more comfortable landing on previously launched rockets. Most of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets now employ the first phase of the first flight.
Unless a customer has a strong argument in one way or another, the decision on whether to use the booster will be left to SpaceX. “You’re buying a launching service, and we’ll provide you with the best vehicle you need to fly during that period.” “And we basically put control in our hands for the most part.”
In truth, Shotwell said, persuading customers to fly on flight-proof rockets is not particularly difficult. It has been much easier to sell customers on technology than it used to sell on Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 rockets. This is because, with rockets, SpaceX has achieved what it said – it would develop and fly low-cost, reliable launchers.
“It was easier to sell‘ Flight Achieved ’to customers than to sell Falcons,” he said. “Naturally, people come to trust organizations and people to say what they’re going to do when you show that kind of history. So we said we would go to Falcon 1 orbit, and we said. Let’s go into orbit from the D Falcon 9, and we did. We said we would go to the station, and we did. So the pace of sales became much less difficult. “
Starship
Shotwell has yet to sell the inadvisable Starship Launch system for commercial launch. In March 2020, the company introduced the initial “Payload User Guide” for large rockets, and discussions are ongoing. However, Shotwell reiterated that the company sells projection capabilities, not specific vehicles, to essential customers.
“We have signed a deal where we can choose whether it is a falcon or a starship,” he said. “We want to provide launch services, and we want to provide it in the most reliable way for us and our customers, and for us and our customers. So we really want to have it in our hands. And we know we have The insurance community has to do with it, just as we did with the Falcon to, just as we did with the Falcon use reuse, so there’s still work to be done, but hopefully people are confident we’ll do what we have to do . “
If Starship has technical issues, and it’s too late, Shotwell said the company could return to the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles. But he said SpaceX has already removed many of the risks from its Starship testing program. Shotwell noted that many concerns about the vehicle’s flight profile were encountered during the landing on the SN8 Starship prototype flight in December.
“We certainly risked a very large program with that,” he said of the flight. “You always have schedule worries and problems, but the amount of flight hardware in Boca with that team is really impressive.” Asked if he thinks Starship will reach orbit in 2021, Shotwell said, “I’m saying yes.”
Starship is the culmination of what SpaceX has been doing in its 18 years of existence. Shotwell took the plunge and later joined an unknown company because, like Kasturi, she believes there are faster, more efficient ways to do aerospace. With its Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 programs, the company endured some growing pains, but now with the help of the Starship program, it can move on quickly by pulling that lesson. SpaceX is building more than one starship vehicle per month and will see it accelerate in 2021. The scale of the project, and the rate at which the company is building this large rocket, is unprecedented in the industry of this region.
“We don’t do it to embarrass people, but we certainly enjoy providing examples of how businesses and companies can perform better,” Shotwell said. “We’re not here to be negative – we’re here to provide some objective evidence and some truth that you can do better in this industry, and this industry deserves to be better.”
