Sierra Space

Or is that just another moonshot?

No, so, you know, technically it was from a company called Sierra Space.

But yes, most of my career was at NASA, working on the NASA International Space Station.

You know, three and a half years, Boeing, Seattle, saving it, saving Dreamliner, six and a half years, NASA's International Space Station.

And about a year and a half, Sierra Nevada Corporations, top secret clearance was Air Force stuff.

And then Sierra Space on a Dream Chaser, which is like a mini space shuttle.

So yeah, but from there, Technically, I still think like an engineer, right? Very logical.

Technically, it was from zero space to that.

Again, going back to that first point, it's like hiring great people who work really hard to do that.

So there are folks from like-- So our head of quality was, uh, like ran quality for SpaceX and kind of Falcon 9, um, back in the day, um, and left there then ran-- worked in a bunch of companies from like AST SpaceMobile to Sierra Space.

But I think it's like having your machinists sit back side by side your SOP writers, sit side by side your software engineer because there are so much of it which can be improved with software.

So for example, I don't know, like have you got the m- material certification or are you doing your fares and layers in the right place? Like actually if you make it so that the happy path has to be followed, then this is where you can build it into your software, you can build it into your process.

Lunar Outpost said it chose the sensor for its ruggedness against the lunar vacuum, temperature swings and vibration, conditions that can't be fixed in the field, along with a compact size that fits the rover's mass and volume limits.

Sierra Space revealed Tuesday that its Dream Chaser space plane will carry payloads for undisclosed national security and commercial customers on its debut flight.

The Louisville, Colorado-based company said the mission will also carry NASA cargo under the agency's Cargo Resupply Services Program.

Sierra Space did not disclose contract values or specify whether the arrangements are signed contracts, letters of intent, or another form of agreement.

Sierra Space CEO Dan Jablonski said the mission reflects a new operational model in which a single platform serves national security, civil and commercial customers at once.

Dan Polis, the company's senior vice president of engineering for DreamChaser, credited the vehicle's deployable wings, hypersonic flight control system and autonomous reentry capability as being critical to the mission.

Sierra Space said environmental testing, command and telemetry validation, and post-landing recovery rehearsals are complete.

The space plane will launch from Kennedy Space Center, conduct multi-day orbital operations, and land on a runway at Vandenberg Space Force Base.

Russia's a mess, and thank Putin for that.

Sierra Space, Dream Chaser.

I'm going to walk away from Dream Chaser.

I've had affection for it too long.

All right, what's the proposal?

You sound like they're potential customers, John.

Sierra Space has its Tenacity Dream Tracer supposedly ready to launch.

Its NASA contract was canceled.

First, the commercial space industry has grown in a way that simply did not exist in previous iterations of this discussion.

SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, Sierra Space, Astrobotic, the list of serious commercial players is long.

And they are all competing for the same limited pool of aerospace engineers, systems specialists, and mission operators.

The talent demand is genuinely high in a way it was not 20 years ago.

so she goes nuts with that.

And then my son, who's the oldest, uh, he just graduated, and, uh, he's w- uh, at a place called Sierra Space now, so, which is-

Is that a, a, kind of a space, uh-

Yeah

Um, over the past couple of years, we started this podcast with the goal to inspire the next generation.

Um, but since then, um, it's kind of became its own thing, and especially within the space sector, we've had some massive names on from ISight to True Anomalie and Sierra Space.

So it's a pleasure to have you and Slingshot on next.

So, uh-