Saw Space has raised $290 million in a Series B round to expand its Dream Chaser spaceplane and commercial space station projects, bringing its valuation to $5.300 billion.
The company has raised $1.700 billion to date, a record for investment by a commercial space company, Sierra said in a statement.
The equity round was co-led by three Japanese investors: one of the country's largest banks, MUFG; the trading company Kanematsu Corporation; and insurance giant Tokio Marine & Nichido. Existing Sierra Space investors also participated. CNBC was the first to report about the news.
Japanese investors have been working with the national space agency JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) to study market opportunities in orbit low earth (LEO). This new investment in Sierra is a strong signal that Japanese companies intend to be leading players in the LEO economy for decades to come, especially after the International Space Station retires in 2030.
Sierra Space is one of a growing number of commercial space station initiatives. In October 2021, the company announced that it would partner with Blue Origin, Boeing and others to build a station called “Orbital Reef.” Sierra said its inflatable habitat called LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) would form one of the central components of the new station.
The company recently completed a series of “burst tests” of a subscale version of the habitat, where the company increased the pressure inside the module until it exploded. The company is now looking to conduct similar tests in a large-scale LIFE habitat before launching a “pathfinder” demonstration mission in 2026.
Sierra is also developing a reusable vehicle called Dream Chaser, with the goal of using it to transport cargo and crew to and from its station. The first flight of Dream Chaser is scheduled to launch aboard United Launch Alliance's Vulcan Centaur next year.
“As we transition our revolutionary Dream Chaser spaceplane into operations for NASA cargo resupply missions to the International Space Station, we are focusing our capital deployment on the development and operations of the first commercial space station, the next step in our space infrastructure, growing our national security offering and expanding our space systems components business,” Sierra CEO Tom Vice said in a statement.
