Sierra Space, the new commercial space subsidiary of Sierra Nevada Corporation (SNC), has named senior aerospace executive Tom Vice as the company’s Chief Executive Officer.
Tom Vice joins Sierra Space following an extensive career in aerospace, including most recently serving as CEO for Aerion Corporation. Prior to that, Vice served as president of Northrop Grumman’s Aerospace Systems sector, an $11 billion global advanced technology business with 23,000 team members. Aerospace Systems’ programs included space-based observatories, satellites, fully autonomous intelligent systems, hypersonic vehicles, and cybersecurity. Vice’s career at Northrop Grumman spanned 30 years in multiple executive leadership roles.
Vice takes the helm of Sierra Space at a time of tremendous growth in the commercial space market. Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser®, also known as “America’s spaceplane,” is under NASA contract to service the International Space Station starting next year and return from LEO via a runway landing. The last space vehicle to do so for NASA was space shuttle Atlantis ten years ago, on July 21, 2011.
With $3 billion in active contracts, a growing pipeline of new business, and assets transitioned from SNC’s Space Systems business area, Sierra Space will deliver the future of space transportation, destinations and infrastructure, including plans to offer the first free-flying commercial space station.