SpaceX President and CEO Gwynne Shotwell speaks at the Air Space Cyber 2018 symposium Sept. 17.
Credit: SpaceNews
Posted on 09/24/2018 8:35:59 AM PDT by ETL
NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell speaks to audiences around the world and gets lots of questions.
During at the Air Force Association's annual symposium, Shotwell was thrown a question she said she had never heard before: "Would SpaceX launch military weapons?"
"I've never been asked that question," Shotwell said somewhat surprised. Her response: "If it's for the defense of this country, yes, I think we would."
The room packed with Air Force service members and military contractors burst into applause. They seemed impressed that SpaceX is one of the world's coolest companies and also a staunch patriot.
Before the Q&A session, Shotwell delivered a 20-minute presentation that mostly featured promotional videos of SpaceX's spectacular Falcon Heavy mission in February. The videos also drew cheers from the crowd.
Shotwell didn't have much to say about the military launch business other than that SpaceX spent "a lot of time building our relationship with the Air Force. And we're now in a good position. We're competing. We're wining some, and losing some."
When asked how bad is the Air Force acquisition system, Shotwell said the Air Force has not cornered the market on red tape. The "most challenging" government customer for SpaceX has been NASA, she said. The company is preparing to launch its Crew Dragon capsule with astronauts onboard, a mission where failure is not an option, she said. The Air Force has asked SpaceX to make its rockets more reliable for national security satellites, but that still does not compare to the pressure of taking humans to space safely.
Shotwell defended SpaceX's culture of risk taking and aggressive innovation. "Failure is bad. But failure while you're trying and you're testing is not terrible. You're learning from it."
The next big challenge for SpaceX is the Big Falcon Rocket, with a second stage called Big Falcon Spaceship that the company believes can reach Mars. Shotwell noted that both stages are fully reusable.
"I hope to be doing hot tests next year with the second stage, the spaceship, and make an orbital flight in 2020," she said. "We would like to put large cargo on the surface of the moon by 2022. And we have our eyes on the prize to send people to Mars in 2024."
Shotwell admitted that those pronouncements might "sound crazy, but everything we've ever done has sounded crazy to people."
The huge second stage spaceship will travel half way around the world in under 30 minutes, she said. "Imagine what we could do for the defense of the United States."
Asked if she worries about national security space threats from China or Russia, Shotwell replied: "As the president of SpaceX, I am concerned about the competition coming from China and Russia because they're backed heavily by their governments. As an American citizen I worry more about China than Russia."
SpaceX last year flew 18 missions, beating any other company or country besides the United States. This year, SpaceX has completed 16 missions and is on track to complete 22 to 24 launches, while China attempts to carry out 40 (as of Sept. 9, it had already completed 24, surpassing its previous national record of 22 set in 2016).
"I was hoping to beat the Chinese this year," she said. "It does concern me that China is flying 40 times this year. And it's not for commercial customers. They have very few commercial customers. So what in the world are they doing?" she added. "The fact that I'm not beating them is a shame. The fact that they're launching 40 times is something we should all be worried about."
Shotwell echoed concerns voiced by Pentagon officials about China's pursuit of space capabilities. "They innovate in a different way, they go after ideas, they stick to a plan, and their pace is much faster."
A video has surfaced of Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama talking on his plans for strategic issues such as nuclear weapons and missile defense.
The full text from the video, as released, reads as follows:
Thanks so much for the Caucus4Priorities, for the great work you've been doing. As president, I will end misguided defense policies and stand with Caucus4Priorities in fighting special interests in Washington.
First, I'll stop spending $9 billion a month in Iraq. I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it.[i.e. not win it]
Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending.
I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems.
I will not weaponize space.
I will slow our development of future combat systems.
____________________________________
Article: Obama Pledges Cuts in Missile Defense, Space, and Nuclear Weapons Programs:
http://web.archive.org/web/20090412030633/http://missilethreat.com/archives/id.7086/detail.asp
"MissileThreat.com is a project of The Claremont Institute devoted to understanding and promoting the requirements for the strategic defense of the United States."
A patriot .. imagine that !
What would be surprising if they didn’t.
They’ll get hammered by the Dems on social media for this. Hope they don’t cave in and apologize.
Obama, enough to gag a maggot.
Obama, 2008:
"I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems"
"I will not weaponize space"
________________________________________
Meanwhile, also 2008...
GOLDEN, Colorado — A just-released Pentagon report spotlights a growing U.S. military concern that China is developing a multi- dimensional program to limit or prevent the use of space-based assets by its potential adversaries during times of crisis or conflict.
Furthermore, last year's successful test by China of a direct-ascent, anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon to destroy its own defunct weather satellite, the report adds, underscores that country's expansion from the land, air, and sea dimensions of the traditional battlefield into the space and cyber-space domains.
Although China's commercial space program has utility for non- military research, that capability demonstrates space launch and control know-how that have direct military application. Even the Chang'e 1 — the Chinese lunar probe now circling the Moon — is flagged in the report as showcasing China's ability "to conduct complicated space maneuvers — a capability which has broad implications for military counterspace operations."
To read the entire publication [29.67MB/pdf], see U.S. Dept of Defense:
http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pdfs/China_Military_Report_08.pdf
_______________________________________________
Obama: "We Welcome China's Rise"
CBS News ^ | January 19, 2011 | Stephanie Condon
______________________________________________________________
Luckily Trump will be unraveling all that.
As for Hillary, she would have quadrupled down.
How anyone could have sat on their hands in the summer and fall of 2016, is beyond my ability to fathom.
I am very glad to hear this from SpaceX.
However, I think that part of what we need to do WRT space is the same thing that we’ve done WRT the air - REQUIRE that all spacecraft with certain capabilities owned by US-based private companies be part of the reserves of the Space Force. We do this with the big airliners - which HAVE to meet certain milspec requirements in order to be approved to fly - and should do the same with space-going craft. Of course, if they are nationalized for an emergency, as airliners were during the first Gulf War, the companies involved would get paid for the use of their property and reimbursed for any losses (commercial or physical). But we must do this - action many times must be immediate, and this isn’t the 19th Century where we have months to mobilize (and, oftentimes, production lead times are far longer than that for spacecraft).
She thinks? She better figure that out now.
She was apparently caught off guard by the question. I hope they don't later retract the response.
This DARPA devision was established in May of this year. This is likely a faction of Trump’s Space-Force, one likely on a fast track. A critical aspect of the program is a responsive launch capability at low costs. They probably have not formally forwarded proposed contracts for launch service to SpaceX as yet. She got sand-bagged with that question.
DARPA: Blackjack Tactical Technology Office
https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-rusty-thomas
https://www.blubrry.com/voices_from_darpa/34871160/episode-21-mr-thousand-satellites/
https://spacenews.com/darpa-to-begin-new-effort-to-build-military-constellations-in-low-earth-orbit/
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