The company grew rapidly, from 160 employees in November 2005 to 8,000 in May 2020, when COO Gwynne Shotwell said she did not expect the company to grow much more to bring Starlink online.[32] In 2016, Musk gave a speech at the International Astronautical Congress, where he explained that the U.S. government regulates rocket technology as an "advanced weapon technology", making it difficult to hire non-Americans.[33]