Sierra Space, one of the most valuable private companies in the industry, fired several hundred workers and contractors this week.
A Sierra Space representative acknowledged that the business let go of roughly 165 workers on Thursday, but she would not say how many contractors were impacted. According to former Sierra Space staffers who spoke, hundreds of employees were cut overall, including a sizable number of contractors.
In addition to receiving four weeks of severance pay and health benefits through the end of the year, the laid-off workers also received two weeks of paid non-working notice. Prior to cutting jobs, Sierra Space employed roughly 2,000 people, according to a company representative.
The Colorado-based business, which was recently valued at over $5 billion, is working extremely hard to complete the eagerly awaited Dream Chaser spacecraft’s first mission.
Tenacity, the first Dream Chaser, was shipped by Sierra Space this week to NASA’s Armstrong facility in Ohio for pre-launch testing. The Sierra Space spokesperson stated that the layoffs started shortly after and that the company hired a lot of people this year to finish the Tenacity spacecraft.
A representative for Sierra Space stated that since Tenacity has been shipped, the company is realigning to concentrate on both classified national security work and the operations phase of Dream Chaser’s first mission.
After the space company was spun out two years ago, Sierra Space reorganized to include the addition of nearly 150 workers with security clearances from Sierra Nevada Corp., the aerospace and defense contractor owned by Fatih and Eren Ozmen. A national security space team is being formed by Sierra Space, according to a company spokesperson, to work on multiple classified contracts.
Prior to the layoffs, Sierra Space also lost two senior executives: Senior Vice President of Space Destinations Neeraj Gupta and COO Jeff Babione, who retired. The exits, according to the company, had nothing to do.
At a $5.3 billion valuation, Sierra raised just under $300 million two months ago.
Dream Chaser is a reusable spacecraft that has been in development for years with the intention of carrying cargo and eventually crew members into low Earth orbit. It is designed to take off atop a conventional rocket and land on a runway like an airplane, giving it the appearance of a scaled-down NASA Space Shuttle.
Prior to delays in the development of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan rocket, the first Dream Chaser launch was supposed to occur late last year. While the first Vulcan launch is scheduled for December, Dream Chaser is scheduled to launch on ULA’s second Vulcan mission.
NASA has awarded contracts to Dream Chaser for seven cargo flights to and from the International Space Station.