Redwire Awarded $44 Million DARPA Contract to Advance Very Low-Earth Orbit Mission

Redwire, a global leader in space and defense technology solutions, led by Peter Cannito, Jonathan Baliff, Al Tadros, and others, has been awarded a $44 million phase 2 contract to advance the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (DARPA) Otter Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) mission to demonstrate the world’s first air-breathing spacecraft and advance next-generation orbital capabilities.

The Phase 2 contract funds the completion of manufacturing and the delivery of the spacecraft to launch, leveraging the proven design of Redwire’s SabreSat platform.

“VLEO is emerging as a pivotal frontier for defense, intelligence, and communications,” said Tom Campbell, President of Space Missions at Redwire. “Work with DARPA is advancing next-generation capabilities, and with Otter and the SabreSat platform, lower-altitude missions now offer sharper sensing, closer target access, faster revisit, lower latency, and greater resilience.”

Otter is built on Redwire’s U.S.-made SabreSat Orbital Drone, a next-generation satellite engineered for performance, endurance, and cost efficiency in VLEO. The mission will demonstrate advanced hardware and software designed to extend spacecraft life and elevate performance in demanding low-altitude environments.

This Q4 2025 award further reinforces Redwire’s position in VLEO technologies, building on its role as prime contractor for ESA’s Skimsat mission and its digital engineering support for DeepSat’s upcoming VLEO constellation.