Gwynne Shotwell

As Elon Musk's SpaceX prepares for a blockbuster IPO, its COO, Gwynne Shotwell, has a new task: reconciling her boss's moonshot ambitions with public-company discipline. Although Musk is the face of SpaceX, it is Shotwell who runs day-to-day operations, almost 25 years after joining as employee No. 11. In 2025, SpaceX logged around 165 launches (some 85% of all U.S. orbital flights), while Starlink, its satellite-based internet service, surpassed 10 million customers. The company hopes to send humans to Mars in the next five years. In short, Shotwell is building a new era of spaceflight.