Criticism of the US regulatory authorities was made by the president of SpaceX, the Gwynne Shotwellsaying that the missile launch authorizations they must keep up with the pace of innovation of her company. “Technology is easy. Physics is easy. People are hard and regulators are even harderSpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell said at a conference hosted by Baron Capital in New York on Friday.

Critics like SpaceX have put a lot of pressure on the Federal Aviation Administration of the US to speed up what they say is a slow approval process for commercial space ventures. In September, Elon Musk, founder and CEO of SpaceX, called on the head of the FAA to resign and claimed that the government paperwork for a launch permit takes longer than building the actual rocket.

“All we ask is for regulatory industries?Shotwell added, “Make them safe, make them right, make them fair. But we have to go faster. Much faster.»

On Thursday, the FAA said it licensed a record number of commercial space ventures last year. Service authorized 148 commercial space ventures the last financial year, an increase of more than 30% from 2023he said in a statement. The agency also plans to update its launch and re-entry licensing rule, as the number of licensed operations could more than double by 2028, it said.

Shotwell said SpaceX plans to launch the next test flight of the colossal Starship rocket on Tuesday. The rocket is the centerpiece of Musk’s dreams of taking humans to the moon and, eventually, Mars. The company made big strides during its last flight on Oct. 13, completing a journey into space that included pulling the vehicle’s booster back to the launch pad using giant mechanical arms.

Shotwell told the conference that she wouldn’t be surprised if Starship flies about 400 times over the next four years. SpaceX already dominates the market for commercial space launch services with its Falcon family, sending cargo and people into orbit for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and other government agencies.

Shotwell said her Starlink unit was launching approx 60 satellites per weekwith about 7,000 satellites in orbit, and will begin rolling out direct-to-cell service in the next month or so. SpaceX is one of the few companies trying to use satellites to provide connectivity to everyday consumer smartphones, although the market is in its infancy. Shotwell remained tight-lipped about SpaceX’s finances, but said the company will make “some money” from Starlink this year.