SpaceX COO Gwynne Shotwell and Northrop Grumman’s Mission Extension Vehicle (MEV-1) won Via Satellite’s Satellite Executive and Technology of the Year awards for 2020, unveiled during a virtual program on April 5 as a lead-in to the LEO Digital Forum.
Shotwell’s win caps a record-breaking 2020 for SpaceX: 26 missions (a single-year launch record), the return of crewed spaceflight to the U.S. with the Crew Demo mission to the ISS, 14 Starlink launches, the Starlink beta launch, and more than $885 million in FCC rural broadband subsidies. Accepting: “2020 — what a weird, and I would normally say, terrible year. The global community tried to figure out how to function and survive during a global pandemic. And yet, SpaceX was able to operate and do extraordinary things last year.” This is her second win — she also won in 2017 for reusable rocket technology. Iridium CEO Matt Desch: “Any time you can share an honor with someone like Gwynne Shotwell is a good day.”
Explore the Show Daily 2021 LEO Digital Forum Issue
Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.
For Technology of the Year, Northrop Grumman and its SpaceLogistics LLC subsidiary were recognized for MEV-1’s historic February 2020 docking with Intelsat 901 — the first-ever commercial satellite docking in orbit. MEV-1 is under contract to provide five years of life extension to IS-901. SpaceLogistics VP Joe Anderson accepted: “With the docking of MEV-1 … it truly feels like our industry is crossing a threshold into Space 2.0, where satellite servicing becomes commonplace.”
Northrop Grumman is also preparing MEV-2 to dock with Intelsat 10-02 and is developing the Mission Robotic Vehicle (MRV) for second-generation in-orbit robotic servicing, scheduled for launch in 2024. VS
