Sierra Space’s spaceplane faces a reinvention after NASA contract change

Summary

When Sierra Space won a contract to deliver cargo to the International Space Station nearly a decade ago, the company promised a first for the commercial space market: a privately built, rapid reuse and cargo return spaceplane capable of landing on commercial runways. That dream has changed. In a modification to the contract announced earlier this week, NASA and Sierra Space agreed to remove the agency’s guarantee to purchase cargo flights to the ISS. Instead, the Dream Chaser spaceplane will debut in a free-flying demonstration in late 2026, and will not dock with the station. NASA said it will provide “minimal support” for that test, and only afterward decide whether to order ISS resupply missions at all. The contract change is a blow to the Dream Chaser program. Typically, such programs rely heavily, if not entirely, on government support, as the up-front development costs for a crewed or cargo spacecraft are so high that commercial customers are rarely able to provide enough demand to close the business case. SpaceX, for example, received billions from NASA through the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services and Commercial Crew programs to develop its Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. So this change also means that Dream Chaser will need to undergo a major rebranding. The mission was always to resupply the ISS under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services program, alongside SpaceX’s Dragon and Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus. Those contracts have a combined ceiling of $14 billion across the three providers; NASA has obligated roughly $1.43 billion to Sierra Space so far, but now that may be as far as the commitment goes. With that guaranteed income gone, Sierra Space now faces the challenge of repositioning itself as a dual-use platform useful to commercial space stations or defense customers. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 Company executives are pushing hard on the defense angle, according to a press release issued on Thursday. Its executive ch...