Thread by @thesheetztweetz

I’m at the annual Commercial Space Transportation conference, hosted by the FAA with CSF in DC.

SpaceX president & COO Gwynne Shotwell is speaking in the first fireside chat today.

Thread: #CST2023

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell: "Tomorrow is a big day for us," as SpaceX will attempt the 33-engine static fire of Starship's Super Heavy booster.

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell: SpaceX aims to attempt the first Starship orbital launch "within the next month or so."

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Former Rep. Mike Rogers, who's moderating the chat, started to ask Shotwell a question about balancing regulation and innovation, suggesting "if you were queen for a day..."

Shotwell with a joking jab back: "I'm queen every day!

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell asks for a show of hands for who in the room has Starlink (she has five at her ranch), with only a couple going up.

"Wow ... so who loves their current internet provider?"

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell: "We were really pleased to be able to provide Ukraine connectivity."

But Starlink "was never intended to be weaponized. However, Ukrainians have leveraged it in ways that were not unintentional and not part of any agreement ... we have to work on that."

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell mentions United Airlines as an example of Starlink providing service inflight, before pivoting to mention JSX and Hawaiian (the latter two SpaceX has announced agreements with, but not United).

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell: "I think we should be living on other planets -- the moon is first."

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell reiterates previous caution about needing to launch Starship on "hundreds of flights before we fly people."

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell asks if anyone in the room wants to go to Mars, before saying "I want to go to the moon."

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell says SpaceX wants to land people on "Mars hopefully this decade, maybe early next decade," saying 2030 sounds realistic.

@csf_spaceflight @FAANews Shotwell: "Why can't we build a rocket every day? That's what we're focusing on with Starship, is attacking every part of the production process to be able to build lots of these machines."