Sierra Space joins defense primes in landing massive military satellite contract

Sierra Space is becoming a member of Rocket Lab as a present or previously VC-backed area firm to land a significant satellite tv for pc cope with the navy.

The Area Improvement Company (SDA) chosen Sierra, together with Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, to construct 54 satellites in offers collectively value $2.5 billion. The information, introduced at this time, follows information from final week that Rocket Lab landed a similar contract for up to $515 million.

The award, in addition to Rocket Lab’s, exhibits that increasingly firms need to take a slice of a market that till now had been the unique area of protection primes: navy satellites. Most not too long ago, Sierra closed a $290 million Series B round that skyrocketed its valuation to $5.3 billion.

The 54 satellites will type a part of the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Area Structure, a large missile detection and monitoring constellation in low Earth orbit that’s being constructed and launched in “tranches.” The trio of contracts introduced at this time is for 18 satellites every within the Tranche 2 Monitoring Layer: L3Harris’s award is value $919 million; Lockheed Martin, $890 million; and Sierra Area, $740 million.

“We’re happy to welcome Sierra Area, a brand new entrant as a major vendor on Staff SDA, as we proceed working with L3Harris and Lockheed Martin on Tranche 2,” SDA director Derek Tournear mentioned in a statement. “{The marketplace} is responding to the demand alerts for our spiral growth mannequin. The agile response throughout the area business is critically essential as we ship to the warfighter this no-fail mission functionality of missile warning, missile monitoring, and missile defence.”

The 54 satellites will include 48 devoted to missile detection and monitoring and 6 to missile protection. All will probably be geared up with infrared sensors, although the sensors on the six birds devoted to missile protection will probably be able to producing what the SDA calls “hearth control-quality tracks,” that are delicate sufficient to information an interceptor to convey down an aggressor’s missile.

Whereas Lockheed and L3Harris have a longtime monitor report profitable satellite tv for pc manufacturing contracts with the SDA, that is the primary award of this sort for Sierra Area. The latter firm is greatest recognized for its Dream Chaser spaceplane and Orbital Reef non-public area station mission, slightly than satellite tv for pc manufacturing at scale.

The satellites are anticipated to launch no later than April 2027.