Sierra Space’s Return to LEO Constellations

Amid all the new entries into LEO small satellite manufacturing, there has been one prominent legacy manufacturer that seemed focused on chasing other dreams. 

Until yesterday, Sierra Nevada Corporation subsidiary Sierra Space’s last public LEO constellation order occurred in 2008 when Orbcomm ordered 18 “OG2” spacecraft to replace its Gen-1 Internet-of-Things constellation. Sierra Space opened a new 9,300 square-meter factory with the intent of building OG2 plus hundreds of small satellites for future customers. But the Orbcomm satellites didn’t work all that well (six of 18 failed), and Sierra Space withdrew from the commercial smallsat market.  

Sierra Space’s Jan. 16 announcement of a $740 million contract to build 18 missile warning satellites for the Space Development Agency’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) shows that the company’s years of quiet defense work were working toward something. The company developed a series of demonstration missions for the Air Force, including LEO satellites for the since-shuttered Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) office and a MEO satellite for the Demonstration and Science Experiment program.  

Sierra Space may have also benefited from work on airborne ISR platforms – an area where the company is an industry leader. Before Sierra Nevada siloed its space activities into Sierra Space in 2021, the larger company worked on intelligence platforms such as the Army’s Airborne Reconnaissance Low-Enhanced (ARL-E) program. Sierra Space has studied ways to adapt terrestrial sensors to space applications, but Lightridge will supply the payload for Sierra’s current SDA award. Nonetheless, the company’s familiarity with integrating multiple sensors onto a platform could prove beneficial from a program management standpoint.  

Another Sierra Space rebound is in cost. At $41.4M per satellite, Sierra Space is appreciably cheaper than fellow Tranche 2 Tracking Layer awardees L3Harris ($51M per satellite) and Lockheed Martin/Terran Orbital ($49.4M per satellite). That’s a noticeable turnaround for a company that in 2022 paid $10M to settle U.S. Attorney’s Office allegations of overcharging federal agencies for defense work. Like with York Space Systems, SDA’s awards to low-cost new entrants provides a check against incumbents whose “exquisite” (read: expensive) military satellites drove DoD towards LEO constellations as a means to reduce per-satellite costs. 

SOURCE: https://www.sierraspace.com/newsroom/press-releases/sierra-space-awarded-740m-prime-contract-by-space-development-agency-for-national-security/