Sierra Space Awarded $740M Prime Contract by Space Development Agency

January 16, 2024

Sierra Space, a leading commercial space company building the first end-to-end business and technology platform in space, announced today that it has won a significant contract award by the Space Development Agency (SDA) for 18 missile warning and tracking satellites.

The prime contract, valued at $740 million and awarded through an Other Transaction Authority (OTA), is for the design, production, delivery, operations and sustainment of 16 missile warning and tracking satellites and two (2) satellites for missile defense and fire control. The contract includes two operational ground segments as well.

The satellites are for the portion of SDA’s proliferated space warfighting architecture known as Tranche 2 Tracking Layer, part of the Defense Department's Low Earth Orbit constellation. Sierra Space’s solution will accelerate the capability to provide global, persistent indications, detection, warning and tracking of conventional and advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missile systems. The company’s solution also delivers preliminary missile defense capability by incorporating fire control quality sensors into the constellation; it will generate fire control quality tracks that enable missile defense kill chains, a critical defense capability, to the warfighter.

“Under the $740 million SDA contract, Sierra Space will deliver an 18-satellite constellation for missile detection and warning with fire control quality tracks,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “Given the strength of our experienced mission-driven team, disruptive innovative technologies, employment of differentiated commercial practices, significant investments in systems and infrastructure, and the ability to execute with reliable performance and on-time delivery of warfighting capabilities to orbit, we have secured approximately $1.3 billion in next generation space-based national security programs.” 

“Missile warning and missile defense is critical to the safety and security of our nation and its people,” added Rusty Thomas, Chief Technology Officer and SVP/GM Space Applications at Sierra Space. “Past winners of prior tranches for the tracking layer mission have been traditional big primes. This award puts Sierra Space on the short list of companies that can deliver, as a prime, in missions critical to the warfighter.”

The tracking layer satellites carry two configurations of optical sensor payloads built by Sierra Space mission payload partner GEOST, a LightRidge Solutions company. GEOST develops and builds high performance, multi-orbit optical payloads that are affordable, low-weight and low-power, with integrated on-orbit processing and ground-based infrastructure.

This latest contract award makes Sierra Space the SDA’s newest supplier of satellites. The agreement includes a $20 million incentive payment for on-time delivery. The company will develop, integrate and test its space vehicles at Sierra Space's satellite production facilities in Colorado.