Hawthorne, CA (December 17, 2008) -Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) has announced the appointment of Gwynne Shotwell as President, effective immediately. In her new position, Shotwell will be part of the Office of the Chairman and CEO and report to Elon Musk, CEO and CTO. As President, she will focus on the operational activities of SpaceX, including sales, marketing, manufacturing, launch operations, legal, government relations and finance.
Ms. Shotwell joined SpaceX in 2002 as Vice President of Business Development to generate and manage SpaceX’s customer base and the company’s strategic and government relations. Previously, she served for ten years at The Aerospace Corporation and before that, directed business development at Microcosm, Inc. She began her engineering career at Chrysler Motors.
In 2004, she was elected to the California Space Authority Board of Directors and currently serves on its Executive Committee. She has served as chairperson of the AIAA Space Systems Technical Committee and as an officer of the AIAA Los Angeles Chapter.
Ms. Shotwell graduated with honors from Northwestern University with a Bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Master’s in Applied Mathematics.
About SpaceX
SpaceX is revolutionizing access to space by developing a family of launch vehicles and spacecraft intended to increase the reliability and reduce the cost of both manned and unmanned space transportation, ultimately by a factor of ten. With its Falcon line of launch vehicles, powered by internally-developed Merlin engines, SpaceX offers light, medium and heavy lift capabilities to deliver spacecraft into any altitude and inclination, from low-Earth orbit to geosynchronous to planetary missions. On September 28, 2008, the Falcon 1, designed and manufactured from the ground up by SpaceX, became the first privately developed liquid fuel rocket to orbit the Earth.
As a winner of the NASA Commercial Orbital Transportation Services competition (COTS), SpaceX is in a position to help fill the gap in American spaceflight to the International Space Station (ISS) when the Space Shuttle retires in 2010. Under the existing Agreement, SpaceX will conduct three flights of its Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon spacecraft, culminating in Dragon berthing with the ISS. SpaceX is the only COTS contender that has the capability to return cargo and crew to Earth. NASA also has an option to demonstrate crew services to the ISS using the Falcon 9 / Dragon system. The first Falcon 9 will arrive at the SpaceX launch site at Complex 40, Cape Canaveral in the coming weeks, in preparation for its maiden flight in 2009.
Founded in 2002, the SpaceX team now numbers more than 620 full time employees, primarily located in Hawthorne, California, with additional locations in Texas, at SpaceX’s Test Facility in McGregor near Waco; offices in Washington DC; and launch facilities at Cape Canaveral, Florida, and the Marshall Islands in the Central Pacific.
