ORLANDO, Fla. — Sierra Space says its chief executive has retired from the company, a move that has taken many in the industry by surprise.
The company said in a Jan. 6 statement to SpaceNews that Tom Vice retired as chief executive as of the end of 2024. The statement did not elaborate on the reasons for his retirement or its timing.
“After three and half years in the role, Tom Vice has retired as Sierra Space CEO as of the end of 2024 – we thank him for his leadership and wish him well in his retirement,” the company stated.
Vice had not previously announced any plans to retire from Sierra Space, where he had been chief executive since mid-2021. When the company issued the statement about his retirement, Vice was still listed on Sierra Space’s website in his roles as chief executive and a member of the company’s board of directors.
Sierra Space said that the chairman of the board of Sierra Space, Fatih Ozmen, would serve as interim chief executive while the company looks for a permanent replacement. He is chief executive and co-owner of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), the company from which Sierra Space was spun out in 2021.
Sierra Space is best known for its work on Dream Chaser, a spaceplane the company has developed that will initially transport cargo to and from the International Space Station under a NASA contract, with plans for a crewed version and other variants for national security applications. Sierra Space and SNC have worked on Dream Chaser for more than a decade, initially proposing it for NASA’s commercial crew program.
The first launch of the cargo version of Dream Chaser is now planned for no earlier than this spring after extensive delays. Dream Chaser was previously scheduled to go on the second launch of United Launch Alliance’s Vulcan Centaur, but Sierra Space agreed last June to remove the vehicle from the launch to allow ULA to proceed with a launch of the rocket in October to meet its schedule for certifying the rocket for national security missions.
Sierra Space has also emphasized its work on commercial space stations, both as a partner on the Blue Origin-led Orbital Reef station as well as its own concepts for a “pathfinder” station. The company is developing inflatable modules called Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) for use in such stations.
The company has made inroads into defense markets, winning a $740 million contract from the Space Development Agency nearly a year ago to build 18 Tranche 2 Tracking Layer satellites for missile tracking. The company completed a preliminary design review for those satellites in November.