Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX’s president and COO, has been awarded the National Space Trophy for 2023 by the Rotary National Award for Space Achievement (RNASA). She will receive the award on April 28, 2023.
Shotwell was nominated by Rob Meyerson, Delalune Space’s founder and CEO. Meyerson described the SpaceX executive as “a strong leader, engineer, and trusted partner to NASA, the Air Force, the National Security community, and commercial customers.”
Shotwell joined SpaceX as the VP of business development in 2002 as one of the company’s first 12 employees. She convinced commercial and government customers to patronize the startup even before it had operational rockets.
Since then, SpaceX has gone on to record impressive achievements to become the top company in the private space industry.
Shotwell is an alumnus of Northwestern University and started her career at The Aerospace Corporation in 1988. She later moved to Microcosm’s Space Systems Development.
Shotwell sits on the boards and committees of multiple organizations, including the California Space Authority Board of Directors, the Export-Import Bank of the United States Advisory Committee, the FAA Management Advisory Council, and Polaris Industries.
Shotwell’s responsibilities a SpaceX have expanded. As of last year she is now in charge of Starship and Starbase missions.
