A group of otters is called a bevy, and DARPA just ordered another round.
Redwire ($RDW) announced yesterday that it landed a $20M DARPA contract as part of the agency’s Otter program, which funds air-breathing electric propulsion (ABEP) tech with the long-term goal of building a new DoD capability for sats to fly between 90 km and 250 km in altitude.
DARPA’s focus on low-altitude spaceflight comes at a time when tensions on-orbit are reaching new heights. As militaries around the world invest heavily in increasing their ability to maneuver in space, the DoD is focused on undercutting the competition.
Flying in VLEO brings added complexity, including increased atmospheric drag, which can spell the early end to low-flying missions. With ABEP tech powering these low-flying sats, however, DARPA and Redwire hope to open a new trajectory for spaceflight—one that benefits exponentially from the increased proximity to the ground.
“These innovations are building a new class of maneuverable, energy-efficient spacecraft capable of supporting persistent operations in critical orbital regimes, ultimately equipping national security space missions with distinctive operational advantages—from rapid orbital agility to enhanced tactical responsiveness,” Spence Wise, Redwire’s SVP of missions and platforms, told Payload in a statement.
Lowering the bar: The contract follows a $44M Phase 2 award Redwire won in November 2025, also under the Otter program. The new $20M will fund a precursor mission on a scaled-down version of Redwire’s SabreSat spacecraft, before DARPA rolls out the full demo.
The subscale mission—targeting a launch in late 2027—will fly for less than a day in VLEO to test the ABEP system on-orbit for the first time. DARPA has not released a date for the full-scale mission.
“This flight test allows us to gather data that cannot be fully recreated on the ground, learn faster, and reduce risk for the full Otter mission,” Wise said. “Redwire is not simply building one spacecraft. We are creating the platforms, models, and digital infrastructure needed to make VLEO operational at scale.”
High expectations: DARPA isn’t the only backer of Redwire’s VLEO tech. The company is a prime contractor for ESA’s Skimsat mission, which aims to bring VLEO capabilities to the continent, and is targeting a first flight NET 2027.
The cross-Atlantic efforts are being developed in parallel, but not every subsystem is transferrable, given the regulatory environment.
“We’re creating efficiencies across the two programs where permitted, subject to applicable laws governing cross-border collaboration and export-control requirements,” Wise said. “One area where we see opportunity is in applying our enterprise digital engineering tools across both efforts, within those boundaries.”
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