The funding will aid in the mission’s primary goal of creating the first ever air-breathing spacecraft to advance orbital capabilities. This phase two contract provides the needed funds to complete manufacturing and deliver the spacecraft to launch.
“VLEO represents an exciting new frontier for defence, intelligence, and communications missions. Through our work with DARPA, we are accelerating the development of cutting-edge capabilities that will define the future of this domain,” said Tom Campbell, president, Redwire Space Missions.
“With Otter and our SabreSat platform, we are delivering higher performance missions at lower altitudes: improving sensor perception and proximity to targets of interest, increasing revisit, reducing latency and redefining mission resilience.”
Otter is built on Redwire’s SabreSat Orbital Drone, a next-generation platform engineered for high performance and long endurance in very low-Earth orbit.
The mission will serve as a baseline for a suite of new software and hardware technologies aimed at prolonging spacecraft lifespan and boosting capability in some of the most demanding low-altitude orbital conditions.