Sierra Space, a commercial space company developing a business and technology platform in space, has been granted a Space Act Agreement (SAA) by NASA under the second Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC-2) initiative.

The Space Act Agreement will enable Sierra Space to offer NASA valuable insights and collaboration in areas such as its manned Dream Chaser spaceplane, novel commercial space station designs, and in-space logistics, refueling, and servicing systems. In return, NASA will facilitate the deployment of Sierra Space’s platform and ecosystem by granting access to its facilities and extending support for environmental and crew systems testing, tools, and software.

The award supports a “pathfinder” space station, serving as a technology demonstrator for vital aspects of commercial space stations. This demonstration is a key step toward designing objects intended for long-term commercial habitation in orbit.

The Space Act Agreement is expected to commence during the design and development stages of the systems and continue for five years, encompassing on-orbit deployment later this decade.

Sierra Space aims to empower the new space economy by building the technology, business platform, and ecosystem, offering products and services to government and commercial customers alike. The collaboration and knowledge-sharing agreement with NASA presents an opportunity for a new generation of space pioneers to construct the low Earth orbit (LEO) ecosystem.

Sierra Space’s open architecture paves the way for a robust LEO commercial ecosystem, spurring breakthrough innovations in fields such as biotechnology, human health, telecommunications, computing, advanced materials, and clean energy.

Tom Vice — Sierra Space CEO said: “Sierra Space is building the in-space infrastructure and end-to-end business platform to accelerate the new space economy.

“This agreement with NASA enables active collaboration to share our expertise and findings as we conduct the formative work that will open the door to extended human missions to space.”

  NASA, Sierra Space, Tom Vice, USA