WASHINGTON — Sierra Space, the aerospace firm best known for its spaceplane designed for NASA cargo missions, is going all in on defense.
The Colorado-based company on June 11 announced the formal launch of Sierra Space Defense, a division focused on national security programs. The business unit will be led by Erik Daehler, a former Lockheed Martin executive who has been building the defense portfolio behind the scenes.
“We’re officially introducing the defense tech business that we’ve been building up in stealth mode for the last two and a half years, and formalizing it in our organization,” Daehler told SpaceNews.
Focus on satellite buses and components
Formed in 2021 as a commercial space spinout of defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation, Sierra Space initially focused on civil and commercial space infrastructure. Its flagship vehicle, the Dream Chaser spaceplane, is designed to transport cargo to and from the International Space Station.
But in recent years the company quietly made a shift toward defense. Since 2023, it has landed $1.5 billion in classified and unclassified defense contracts — highlighted by a $740 million deal to build 18 missile-tracking sensor satellites for the U.S. Space Force’s Space Development Agency (SDA). The firm is also one of three bidders for the Space Force’s Resilient GPS (R-GPS) program, which aims to modernize the military’s navigation satellites with commercial technology.
The company supplies components including satellite buses, propulsion systems, solar arrays, and environmental controls.
Sierra Space is also moving ahead with its Ghost spacecraft, a rapid-delivery vehicle designed to return cargo from orbit to anywhere on Earth in under 90 minutes. The project has drawn interest and funding from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, which is exploring logistics solutions for global rapid response scenarios.
‘Victory Works’ manufacturing facility
To support expected growth in defense orders, the company plans to build a new 60,000-square-foot manufacturing facility dubbed “Victory Works” in Centennial, Colorado. The site will focus on satellite bus production and push the company’s total U.S. infrastructure over one million square feet across seven states.
“Two and a half years ago, we made a strategic pivot to stand up the defense sector inside of Sierra Space,” said Daehler. “We worked very closely with our customers to place our investments into the products that we need for specific programs of record. We won multiple contracts and now are in the transition from design and build into assembly integration and test.”
