Jacksonville aerospace firm Redwire lands $44M contract for air-breathing spacecraft tech (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — A Jacksonville-based aerospace industry leader’s efforts to further space capabilities earned it a major injection with a major contract from a federal defense agency.
Redwire Corporation, which offers space and defense technology solutions, announced a $44 million phase 2 contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. It will forward its Otter Very Low Earth Orbit mission to foster the world’s first air-breathing spacecraft’s next-generation orbital capabilities.
Otter will develop, demonstrate and collect on-orbit data for air-breathing electric propulsion technologies that enable VLEO operations at altitudes of approximately 55 to 280 miles, DARPA said.
In very low orbits, a combination of atmospheric drag and the Earth’s gravity rapidly drag down an object’s altitude. This makes frequent propulsion necessary, but the fuel required to stay in orbit is finite. But Otter is able to harvest low-density air to ionize and accelerate the resultant ion flow, thereby creating a virtually unlimited propellant supply.
DARPA’s phase 2 contract funds manufacture and delivery of spacecraft, which will leverage the design of Redwire’s SabreSat orbital drone. The satellite technology that Otter will fuel intends to improve land-based imaging resolution and communications latency, which is of great interest to the U.S. military and military customers who want quicker intelligence cycles and improved tracking of mobile threats.
“With Otter and our SabreSat platform, we are delivering higher-performance missions at lower altitudes: improving sensor perception and proximity to targets of interest, increasing revisit, reducing latency and redefining mission resilience,” said Tom Campbell, president of space missions at Redwire.
The Q4 award not only strengthens Redwire’s leadership in VLEO capabilities, but complements its role as prime contractor for the European Space Agency’s Skimsat mission and its digital engineering work for DeepSat’s planned VLEO constellation.
This award follows Redwire’s $925 million acquisition of Edge Autonomy, a provider of field-proven uncrewed airborne system technology, in the first half of 2025. The Edge purchase and DARPA award advance Redwire’s autonomous and AI-enabled multi-domain operations for defense and national security.