Sierra Area is becoming a member of Rocket Lab as a present or previously VC-backed area firm to land a significant satellite tv for pc take care of the navy.

The Area Growth Company (SDA) chosen Sierra, together with Lockheed Martin and L3Harris, to construct 54 satellites in offers collectively value $2.5 billion. The information, introduced in the present day, follows information from final week that Rocket Lab landed an analogous contract for as much as $515 million.

The award, in addition to Rocket Lab’s, exhibits that an increasing number of firms wish to take a slice of a market that till now had been the unique area of protection primes: navy satellites. Most just lately, Sierra closed a $290 million Collection B spherical that skyrocketed its valuation to $5.3 billion.

The 54 satellites will type a part of the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Area Structure, a large missile detection and monitoring constellation in low Earth orbit that’s being constructed and launched in “tranches.” The trio of contracts introduced in the present day is for 18 satellites every within the Tranche 2 Monitoring Layer: L3Harris’s award is value $919 million; Lockheed Martin, $890 million; and Sierra Area, $740 million.

“We’re happy to welcome Sierra Area, a brand new entrant as a chief vendor on Group SDA, as we proceed working with L3Harris and Lockheed Martin on Tranche 2,” SDA director Derek Tournear mentioned in a assertion. “{The marketplace} is responding to the demand alerts for our spiral improvement mannequin. The agile response throughout the area business is critically vital as we ship to the warfighter this no-fail mission functionality of missile warning, missile monitoring, and missile defence.”

The 54 satellites will encompass 48 devoted to missile detection and monitoring and 6 to missile protection. All shall be outfitted with infrared sensors, although the sensors on the six birds devoted to missile protection shall be able to producing what the SDA calls “hearth control-quality tracks,” that are delicate sufficient to information an interceptor to deliver down an aggressor’s missile.

Whereas Lockheed and L3Harris have a longtime monitor file successful satellite tv for pc manufacturing contracts with the SDA, that is the primary award of this sort for Sierra Area. The latter firm is finest identified for its Dream Chaser spaceplane and Orbital Reef personal area station undertaking, relatively than satellite tv for pc manufacturing at scale.

The satellites are anticipated to launch no later than April 2027.