Sierra Space CEO talks about IPO plans, satellite launch, and Dream Chaser

Amid preparations for the maiden flight of its spaceplane and an initial public offering next year, Sierra Space is expanding its satellite offerings.

Ahead of the long-awaited solar eclipse, the commercial space unicorn unveiled its Eclipse line of satellite buses — the main structures of satellites — to serve a wide range of missions in orbits ranging from low-Earth to lunar cis.

“We had already been waiting for six months, so we really thought about this (name),” Sierra Space CEO Tom Weiss said in an interview on CNBC's “Manifest Space.” “I think the name is very appropriate, because I think it will change everything in terms of the affordability of building next-generation buses for next-generation satellites.”

Sierra Space was spun off from defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corporation three years ago, which was valued at $5.3 billion as of September. The independent subsidiary touts a three-decade spaceflight heritage and is the result of an ambitious early bet made by SNC's billionaire husband-and-wife team, Fatih and Eren Ozmen.

Sierra Space promotes a diverse portfolio of space and defense technologies including space transportation, space habitation, propulsion and satellites. It is perhaps best known for its NASA-contracted, reusable Dream Chaser spaceplane that will fly cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station and eventually carry humans to and from orbit.

It is also working on a commercial space station with Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin company called Orbital Reef, and in January it secured a high-profile $740 million contract with the Pentagon to develop a constellation of missile-tracking satellites for the United States.

Eclipse's offerings enhance the spacecraft subsystem business.

And on Dream Chaser, Vice said he's “very confident” it will make its maiden flight in the fourth quarter of this year. He added that the spaceplane passed the first stage of environmental tests in March, and said that it will carry cargo to the International Space Station in this first demonstration. The company is relying on the NASA statement and is working with the Federal Aviation Administration to obtain re-entry authorization.

“Dream Chaser is also a vehicle that can spend a year in orbit and be an orbiting space station for microgravity research,” Weiss said, speaking of the R&D and manufacturing opportunities he and the company are betting will materialize in low Earth orbit. Providing working conditions for the spacecraft as well as its space habitats.

Sierra Space has identified four sectors that it believes microgravity could serve to disrupt industry on Earth: stem cells, oncology, vaccines, and industrial glass. These markets were collectively worth $900 billion in 2022, according to Vice, and are growing at a rate of nearly $3.7 trillion by 2038.

“You can do some things that are radically different in terms of protein crystallization that we know will produce better drugs. So we think that's a huge market for us,” he said.

Sierra's near-term focus is on closing a Series B funding round to raise capital for potential acquisitions, on getting Dream Chaser flying, and on putting its financials in a strong position ahead of a potential IPO as soon as next year.

“We'll start looking at that as an option and make the decision depending on what the markets look like,” Weiss said. “But I think we are very quickly becoming a company that has been able to show significant revenue growth.”

Sierra sales are expected to double in 2024, according to Vice. Its backlog currently stands at $4 billion, and it is working to become cash flow positive.

After major layoffs in November, Sierra Space also plans to double its workforce this year.

Although it has received offers to go public via a special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, the plan is to proceed with a traditional IPO process.

“We are a company that is thinking a lot about ushering in the deepest industrial revolution in human history,” Weiss explained.