Sierra Space pioneering the future of space transportation and infrastructure for low-Earth orbit (LEO) commercialization, today announced the signing of a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the United States Department of Defense’s Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM). The two businesses will collaborate to create solutions that will use Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser spaceplanes, Shooting StarTM cargo modules, and on-orbit infrastructure to ensure precise, cost-effective, and timely worldwide delivery of Department of Defense commodities and troops.
Both parties will investigate space transportation as a new way of point-to-point worldwide terrestrial delivery of materiel and personnel for the Department of Defense’s global supply chains, as an alternative and complement to traditional air, land, and surface modes. Furthermore, the agreement contains plans to analyse Sierra Space’s present capabilities and maturity, as well as observed and expected risks, rewards, and future research and development required as a result.
“Today’s agreement with the United States Transportation Command gives Sierra Space the unique opportunity to provide hypersonic point-to-point solutions to our government customers,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “Through Dream Chaser, the world’s first commercial spaceplane, the Shooting Star cargo module and other projects, we are focused on providing unique ultra-high-speed, heavy payload solutions to the Department of Defense for logistics and personnel movement requirements. We plan to leverage these technologies to reach anywhere on the globe within three hours.”
The increased urgency of contested and changing settings, as well as instantaneous sophisticated cyber attacks, compounds the traditional distance-driven issues of on-time global logistics delivery. Given this context, the Sierra Space and USTRANSCOM agreement will develop concepts and investigate emerging industry capabilities for immediate force projection and agile transportation options to project and sustain combat forces in complex and contested environments, as well as non-combat activities such as humanitarian relief operations and medical missions.
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