SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said that there is plenty of room for rivals in the space industry even if her company has major ground in both the rocket and satellite sectors. Speaking before the 2024 Baron Investment Conference in New York, Shotwell was positive regarding her leadership optimism but expressed welcome competition as a driver of innovation and focus. “It’s going to be tough to catch us, but I certainly hope people try,” she said.
SpaceX has achieved over 100 launches of its Falcon rockets in 2024, thus it is finally getting the upper hand on the international launch business. Rocket Lab, the closest US competitor, has launched only 12 times during this year so far. Space X continues to obtain major government contracts and important contracts with NASA and the Department of Defense. This has made SpaceX the flagship of commercial space flight, by offering to the world its only American crew vehicle for transport to the International Space Station, through the Dragon capsule.
SpaceX‘s Starlink satellite internet network, with now nearly 5 million customers, has been the broadband industry’s disruptor. Having expanded beyond consumer internet to enterprise markets such as aviation and maritime sectors, with almost 7,000 satellites in orbit, Shotwell said that still, the satellite broadband market remains vast but competition is growing, as Eutelsat’s OneWeb, Amazon’s Project Kuiper and AST SpaceMobile develop alternative offerings.
Shotwell also addressed the future of SpaceX’s next generation Starship rocket, a vehicle which eventually will replace the Falcon and Dragon vehicles. A fully reusable system, Starship is reportedly the only way to achieve Elon Musk’s dream of space travel beyond Earth. Immediately after Starship’s booster landed for its fifth test flight Saturday, SpaceX announced it had more Starship demonstrations planned, with the next flight set for as early as Tuesday. Shotwell highlighted that Starship’s larger size, greater comfort, and lower cost could revolutionize space missions, with projections of up to 400 Starship launches within the next four years.
