Spirit AeroSystems partners to build space vehicles

Daniel McCoy | Wichita Business Journal

Spirit AeroSystems Inc. has entered an agreement that will have it help design and build space vehicles for an ambitious Colorado-based space company.

Spirit (NYSE: SPR) said the deal will pair it with Sierra Space to help build its planned Shooting Star cargo module and further develop that company’s planned family of Dream Chaser spaceplanes.

“We are very excited about the opportunity this partnership with Sierra Space represents,” Spirit CEO Tom Gentile says in a news release. “Spirit AeroSystems brings unparalleled value in terms of design for manufacturability and industrialization to help scale production rates on the Dream Chaser and its derivatives. We look forward to joining Sierra Space on its mission to create exciting breakthroughs that enable existing businesses, entrepreneurs, researchers and governments to empower humanity to enhance life on Earth. We are grateful to Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas, who assisted with connecting our two companies to make this partnership possible.”

The Shooting Star will be a 15-foot transport vehicle with a 10,000-pound payload that will attach to the Dream Chaser spaceplane.

Sierra Space spun off last year to become a wholly-owned subsidiary of its parent company, Sierra Nevada Corp., a privately held Sparks, Nev.-based defense and aerospace contractor. The business’ owners, Fatih and Eren Ozmen, are married billionaires who hired CEO Tom Vice last summer from supersonic jet plane startup Aerion after that business lost funding.

Spirit had been in line for work with Aerion prior to that business folding.

“Through this long-term partnership, Sierra Space is delighted to begin work with Tom’s (Gentile) team at Spirit AeroSystems, widely recognized as leaders in the aerospace industry and aligned with our vision of an accessible and vibrant space economy,” Vice says. “Working with Spirit Defense and Space, we will broaden access to tomorrow’s space economy; lowering the cost of entry and increasing the speed to market of Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser franchise. Together we will accelerate the commercialization of space.”

The Denver Business Journal has much more on Vice and his ambitions for Sierra Space in this report from February.

Sierra Space secured $1.4 billion in capital in 2021 to mark the largest Series A capital raise of last year and the second-largest private capital raise in history.

Space work has been a growing priority for Spirit, so much so that it rolled those programs into those for its military customers last year to form Spirit Defense & Space.

The company expects that to be a $1 billion business unit by the middle of the decade.