Sierra Nevada’s Dream Chaser spacecraft in orbit
Source: Sierra Nevada Corporation
Another company is coming to the commercial space industry, but unlike many of the new start-ups that spark the imagination, this company is already touting billions of dollars in business.
And it could potentially be wooing investors soon.
The privately-owned Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC) establishes Sierra Space, an independent commercial space company with a portfolio that includes a reusable space plane and a commercial space station – big bets in development for which the new organizational structure is intended. accelerate.
“Our space business is a unique example of our growth strategy. What started as a $ 40 million acquisition has now grown 10x to $ 400 million and will reach $ 4 billion within 5-10 years,” writes SNC Chairman and president Eren Ozmen. , in an internal company email distributed and viewed by CNBC on Tuesday.
“To accelerate this growth and achieve even greater impact, we announce today that our space field will be transformed into an independent, commercial space company … Sierra Space will continue to be a subsidiary of the SNC family and its close collaboration and synergy between customers, technologies and many shared activities. “
The Sparks, Nevada-based Sierra Nevada Corporation is 100% owned by the husband and wife team, Fatih and Eren Ozmen, Turkish billionaire immigrants who turned once struggling SNC into a multi-billion dollar defense and national security contractor . More than a decade ago, they saw an opportunity to start investing in aerospace capabilities and technology, personally gambling – in much the same way as other deep pocket visionaries like Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Richard Branson – that a new private sector led the space economy could one day take off.
‘Vibrant low Earth orbit’
The Ozmen vision encompasses space transport, destinations and infrastructure, also in low Earth orbit, as it is open to commercialization.
“We envision a vibrant, low-Earth orbit economy with fleets of Dream Chaser spacecraft, a commercial space station, expandable LIFE habitats that can travel to the Moon and Mars, and critical infrastructure such as power generation, propulsion and environmental systems” , according to the internal email.
Sierra Space will get the reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane currently in development – a ‘space taxi’ that, designed in part after the Space Shuttle, can land on any runway in the world that can support a Boeing 737 aircraft.
Dream Chaser, which is designed with capabilities to transport people and goods, is currently contracted with NASA to perform six cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station by 2024. The first flight for NASA is expected at the end of next year.
SNC also recently unveiled its commercial space station, an integrated free-flying prototype for which testing will soon begin at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The station consists of inflatable LIFE habitats that the company has designed for long-term space living, and is expected to compete for NASA funding in the agency’s recently unveiled Commercial LEO Destinations (CLD) project.
In total, SNC’s aerospace portfolio currently includes $ 3 billion in active contracts.
Space investment boom
The creation of Sierra Space comes as commercial space efforts broaden across the industry, as more rocket companies reach orbit, space tourism plans grow and the Biden administration proposes a six percent budget increase for NASA by fiscal 2022 .
Investors have also become aware of the sector in a significant way. A growing number of aerospace start-ups have made deals to make public through dedicated acquisition companies, and Cathie Wood’s new Ark Space Exploration & Innovation ETF is on track to become one of the most successful fund launches ever.
While the company’s email doesn’t address it, the new structure could create more flexibility if capital were raised. It is currently unclear whether or how the Ozmens will try external investments, but they expressed their openness to the possibility in an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on Street” in December last year.
“We are open-minded because we see that raising capital will allow us to scale up significantly and accelerate our growth,” Eren told CNBC at the time.
“We have this vision … we might get there sooner than later … if we exploit some of the capital markets. There’s that excitement that one can’t ignore, or SPACs, I mean, valuations are top levels, investments are record levels. , ”added Fatih. , who is CEO of SNC, during that same interview.
According to Tuesday’s internal email, SNC employees will learn more in the coming weeks and months about steps being taken to transition the space industry. It will likely take several months for the new Sierra Space company to truly operate independently.