The Driving Force Behind SpaceX Triumph: A Woman COO Turning Dreams Into Reality

As the old proverb goes, “behind every great man is a great woman.” This is certainly true when it comes to SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk – and no, it’s not a reference to his ex-wives. Indeed, there is only one woman, besides his mother, who has remained steadfastly by his side over the years: Gwynne Shotwell, the current Chief Operating Officer (COO) of SpaceX and Elon’s indispensable right hand.

Gwynne Shotwell, president and COO of SpaceX during the NASA Commercial Crew Program astronaut visit in 2018
Source: Getty Images

In the dynamic world of space exploration, where Elon Musk is a visionary with ambitions for SpaceX to soar to the stars, Shotwell stands as a formidable force working tirelessly behind the scenes to turn these aspirations into sustainable businesses.

Contrary to most stereotypical rocket enthusiasts, Shotwell's journey into the space industry wasn't preordained. Although Gwynne watched a television broadcast of the Apollo 11 mission with her family when she was five, she remembers finding it “boring,” lacking interest in space at the time. Nevertheless, destiny had a plan that eventually led her to SpaceX.

Throughout her school years, Gwynne played basketball and faced uncertainty regarding her post-graduation plans. Encouraged by her mother's aspiration for her to pursue engineering, Gwynne attributes her decisive career path to an engineering event she attended during her youth, where she was inspired by a woman in a suit.

[...] I loved her suit. Not a joke, I’m not exaggerating […] She really inspired me. And that day I said, ‘Okay, mom, you can get off my back, I will be a mechanical engineer.’
— Gwynne Shotwell during Society of Women Engineers in October 2014

During her pursuit of a bachelor's degree in engineering, she found herself among just three women mechanical engineers amidst 36 undergraduates – a statistic that, while shocking, didn't steer her off course. Following the conclusion of her academic journey in 1986, she endeavored to secure a position at IBM, only to face rejection. Undeterred, she joined Chrysler Corporation's management training program. This marked the beginning of her path as COO; she did everything from rebuilding engines to working alongside engineers who designed cars, honing her skills along the way.

Feeling disillusioned by the monotony of her corporate life, she eventually decided to quit – and that is when her journey in the space engineering realm began. She earned a master's degree in math and was later hired as a thermal analyst in The Aerospace Corporation. In this role, she was responsible for running models on the supercomputers of space shuttle heating in real time and feeding this information to NASA. A decade later, she was promoted to a director position within the space systems division at Microcosm Inc. Here, she broadened her scope to include strategic business development initiatives, with a primary emphasis on selling services to the government and corporations. As it later turned out, it was within this crucible of professional evolution that she garnered her invaluable expertise, the dividends of which would later manifest in the meteoric ascent of SpaceX.

When exactly did Gwynne Shotwell join SpaceX?

Gwynne’s journey to SpaceX wasn't a leap, but rather a calculated propulsion into the unknown. Despite the comfort of her position at Microcosm, Shotwell sensed a stirring within, a yearning to contribute on a grander scale. When the opportunity to join Elon Musk's audacious venture presented itself, Gwynne seized the opportunity offered by her former Microcosm colleague Hans Koenigsmann.

Shotwell was impressed by Elon’s ambitions to shake the aerospace industry, and, just like him, she was also frustrated by the lack of innovation. In light of this and other factors, she advised Musk to hire someone dedicated to sales to find a customer for SpaceX’s first rocket, the Falcon 1. Musk, recognizing her passion, later offered her this role. Though she hesitated momentarily, weighing the risks and rewards, it was the allure of pushing the boundaries of aerospace innovation that ultimately propelled her to accept Musk's offer.

… this was just too far out of my comfort zone. I was driving on the freeway here in L.A. when it finally hit me: I was being a total idiot. [...] What I recognized at that moment was that it was the trying part that was the most important. [...] I don’t want to imagine what my life and career would be like had I said no.
— Gwynne Shotwell during a virtual commencement ceremony at Northwestern University in 2021

Musk might not have known it at the time, but he truly hit the jackpot with this recruit – arguably the most important hire the company ever made in its history.

SpaceX's secret weapon – Gwynne Shotwell’s role and impact

Just two weeks later she rejected Elon’s first offer, Shotwell joined SpaceX as the VP of Business Development, which was indeed a sales role. While numerous senior executives have left Musk since then, Shotwell stands resolute, earning her title as the unwavering stalwart of the company. Regarded as the company’s No. 2 executive, Gwynne is the driving force behind pushing the boundaries of the rocket company founded by Elon Musk.

"I love working for @elonmusk... Without him saying anything, he drives you to do your best work. He doesn't have to say a word. You just want to do great work." — @SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell https://t.co/wItzoDEJql

— TED Talks (@TEDTalks) April 23, 2018

Whenever Elon posts a tweet hinting at potential mishaps with a new SpaceX rocket, it’s Gwynne Shotwell who travels across the globe to reassure key business partners of the launch's seamless execution. Her unwavering commitment to Elon's vision of landing on Mars, coupled with her pragmatic approach, has solidified her position as the indispensable force driving SpaceX forward.

First of all, when Elon says something, you have to pause and not immediately blurt out, ‘Well, that’s impossible,’ or, ‘There’s no way we’re going to do that. I don’t know how.’ So you zip it, and you think about it, and you find ways to get that done [...] I always felt like my job was to take these ideas and kind of turn them into company goals, make them achievable, and kind of roll the company over from this steep slope, get it comfortable.
— Gwynne Shotwell

Gwynne possesses a rare talent for translating Elon's visionary aspirations into actionable, incremental strategies. She ingeniously harnesses SpaceX's technological prowess to construct profitable business frameworks that support longer-term projects and ambitious goals such as “carrying humans to Mars” – a concept she coins as ‘residual capability’, a term exemplified by groundbreaking initiatives like the Falcon 9 rocket.

It’s exactly this residual capability. So we developed the Merlin engine for the Falcon 1 launch vehicle. We could have tossed that engine and built an entirely new engine for the Falcon 9. It would have been called something different because Falcon 9 is nine Merlin engines, but instead of spending a billion dollars on a brand new engine, we put nine of them together on the back end of Falcon 9. Residual capability: glue three Falcon 9s together, and you have the largest operational rocket flying. And so it was expensive to do, but it was a much more efficient path than starting from scratch.
— Gwynne Shotwell during the 2018 TED talk

Today, some call Gwynne the ‘secret sauce’ behind the company’s extraordinary success, owing to her engineering expertise, business know-how, and connections in the industry, which have facilitated the landing of multiple lucrative contracts. Matt Desch, the CEO of satellite firm Iridium, a major SpaceX customer, contends that while Musk may be perceived as the foremost risk-taker at SpaceX, Shotwell stands as its linchpin for success. She orchestrates the deployment of personnel during launches, executes pivotal business decisions, and, according to Desch, acts as “the cleanup.”

Following the successful launch of the Falcon 1 into orbit on its fourth attempt in 2008, she negotiated a USD 1.6 billion contract with NASA for 12 cargo flights to the space station. Moreover, in 2013, Gwynne reportedly played a pivotal role in securing a 20-year lease of launchpad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center, a site previously utilized by the Apollo moon missions and other space shuttle flights.

Ultimately, since its establishment in 2002, SpaceX has evolved from a start-up with half a dozen employees to the second-largest NASA contractor and the second-most-valuable private company in the world.

Though she may not enjoy the same level of public recognition as her billionaire boss, Shotwell has earned a reputation in the aerospace sector as the composed leader of the most successful commercial rocket company in the world. Despite their apparent differences, Musk and Shotwell are propelled by a shared ambition, driving SpaceX's growth trajectory, with Gwynne's indispensable contributions matching those of the company's founder.