Gwynne Shotwell

Gwynne Shotwell, who was SpaceX’s 11th employee, has led the space launch company through a series of milestones this past year, including record Falcon launches in 2024, four crewed missions with its “Dragon” capsule, the deployment of some 2,000 satellites, and several successful test flights for Starship—SpaceX’s mega-rocket that is eventually expected to send heavier payloads into orbit for customers, ship larger satellites into space, and eventually transport dozens of people into space at once. SpaceX is one of several of Elon Musk’s companies to face criticism and accusations of conflicts of interest due to Musk’s role as senior advisor to President Donald Trump, and the company has faced pushback over environmental issues at its launch sites.