Sierra Space and Redwire Partner to Bring In-Space Biotech Facilities to Customers via the Sierra Space Platform

Redwire to deliver state-of-the-art commercial biotechnology and manufacturing technology for Sierra Space’s LIFE™ habitat

LOUISVILLE, Colo. & JACKSONVILLE, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sierra Space, a leading pureplay commercial space company building the first end-to-end business and technology platform in space, announced today its strategic partnership with Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy.

Specifically, the two companies are collaborating on groundbreaking commercial pharmaceutical and biotech R&D and manufacturing in low-Earth orbit (LEO). Redwire is delivering state-of-the-art, flight-proven biotechnology and manufacturing technologies that will be integrated into Sierra Space’s Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat platform, making them available to customers and enabling commercial breakthroughs for pharmaceutical drug development and human health research.

“The most significant industrial revolution is underway in space, as we build the first microgravity factories that will benefit humanity with breakthrough innovations and solutions to our toughest problems here on Earth,” said Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice. “In Redwire, we have a partner that has a proven history of innovation across in-space manufacturing and biotech facilities. Together we will enable discoveries in human healthcare, biopharma and across the widest range of the industrials sector as we extend research facilities and factories off-world in the Orbital Age.”

"Redwire is proud to have been selected by Sierra Space to deliver state-of-the-art biopharma and manufacturing facilities for the Sierra LIFE Pathfinder module, leveraging decades of proven microgravity research and development on the International Space Station to provide extraordinary technological and economic benefit to humanity," said Redwire Chairman and CEO Peter Cannito.

Redwire will deliver a suite of space hardware and ground-based equipment, including biotechnology for large molecule crystallization for pharmaceutical structure determination and formulation, thermally conditioned stowage lockers, manufacturing facilities for industrial crystals, and a gradient-temperature furnace. Additionally, Redwire is providing technical expertise for automation and robotics. Hardware development is underway with deliveries expected to begin in the fourth quarter of 2023. All of this work is built upon the foundation of hundreds of experiments that Redwire has flown on the International Space Station (ISS), including the 10 current payloads aboard the ISS today.

Sierra Space’s LIFE habitat launches on a conventional rocket and expands to the size of a three-story building on-orbit. The unique structure will provide opportunities for multiple businesses, including manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and other sectors, to optimize zero gravity benefits. The LIFE habitat has been developed and tested to meet NASA micrometeoroid impact and thermal capability requirements. Having already successfully completed four stress tests since 2022, a full-scale test is scheduled for fall 2023.

Redwire is expanding its operational capacity to better support increased commercial demand for biotechnology and industrial manufacturing as the company recently announced plans to develop a new 30,000 square foot facility in Indiana. Additionally, Redwire is continuing to support robust utilization on the ISS by planning, developing, and ultimately operating additional flight payloads on the ISS over the next 12 months.

About Sierra Space

Sierra Space (www.sierraspace.com) is a leading, pure play commercial space company at the forefront of innovation and the commercialization of space in the Orbital Age™, building an end-to-end business and technology platform in space to benefit life on Earth. With more than 30 years and 500 missions of space flight heritage, the company is enabling the future of space transportation with Dream Chaser®, the world’s only commercial spaceplane, and is bringing LIFE™ (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) to low-Earth orbit with its modular, three-story commercial habitation and science platform. Both Dream Chaser and LIFE are central components to Orbital Reef, a mixed-use business park in LEO being developed by principal partners Sierra Space and Blue Origin, which is expected to be operational by the end of the decade. Sierra Space also builds and delivers a host of systems and subsystems across solar power, mechanics and motion control, environmental control, life support, propulsion and thermal control, offering myriad space-as-a-service solutions for the new space economy.

About Redwire

Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW) is a global leader in mission critical space solutions and high reliability components for the next generation space economy, with valuable intellectual property for solar power generation, in-space 3D printing and manufacturing, avionics, critical components, sensors, digital engineering, and space-based biotechnology. We combine decades of flight heritage with an agile and innovative culture. Our “Heritage plus Innovation” strategy enables us to combine proven performance with new, innovative capabilities to provide our customers with the building blocks for the present and future of space infrastructure. For more information, please visit redwirespace.com.