By Hannah Pedone and William Gavin
No 'key man' risk here: Elon Musk's No. 2 at SpaceX has driven it forward as a private company and now as it prepares to go public
Gwynne Shotwell, SpaceX's president and chief operating officer, was the seventh person to be hired at the company.
Elon Musk has long had a large cult of admirers who follow his every move, and he's depending on them to make the massive SpaceX initial public offering happen as the company sells as much as 30% of the shares in its IPO to retail investors.
But SpaceX (SPCX) has also been driven by a much more low-profile personality who manages the company's wide-ranging operations on a day-to-day basis.
