Tom Vice, a longtime Northrop Grumman executive tapped to lead Sierra Space in 2021, retired from the company on Dec. 31, a spokesperson told Payload.
Sierra didn’t announce the unexpected leadership change, which was first reported by Eric Berger.
Sierra Space chairman Fatih Ozmen will step in as CEO, with his wife Eren acting as president; the two have owned Sierra’s former parent company since 1994.
Backstory: Vice became CEO when the company was spun out of Sierra Nevada Corporation in 2021, armed with $1.5B in new, private capital from investors including General Atlantic, Coatue, Moore Strategic Ventures, Blackrock, and AE Industrial Partners.
The plan was to exploit growing demand for commercial space products with a new standalone prime contractor that could offer customers a reusable LEO spacecraft, the infrastructure for private space stations, as well as satellites and their components.
In 2023, Vice led another $290M fundraising round, and last year, even suggested an IPO might be in the cards. The company reportedly kicked the tires on a purchase of ULA from owners Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
Chasing dreams: Sierra’s Dream Chaser cargo spacecraft, under development for well over a decade and originally expected to fly in 2021, missed its deadline to make the second launch of ULA’s Vulcan rocket last year. Sierra still expects to fly Dream Chaser in 2025, a spokesperson told Payload.
What’s next? An executive search is underway, and besides overseeing Dream Chaser’s long-awaited maiden flight, whoever takes the helm at Sierra has lots to do, including fulfilling a $740M satellite contract from the SDA, contributing inflatable habitats to Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef space station, and even exploring a reentry business.
The question is whether the company can get all that done without raising more capital, or if Sierra will need to narrow its ambitions.
