Sierra Space puts Ghost reentry vehicle through cargo drop tests
Per Aviation Week: Sierra Space drop-tested its Ghost reentry vehicle from 68,500 feet in a Space Command logistics exercise.
what happened
Sierra Space conducted two drop tests of its Ghost reentry vehicle, from 68,500 feet and 35,000 feet at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, during U.S. Space Command's Apollo Nexus logistics exercise in May, per Aviation Week. Ghost, designed to stay prepositioned in orbit for up to five years and deliver cargo anywhere on Earth within 90 minutes, returned a software-defined radio and a bottle of whiskey undamaged in the tests. Sierra Space Defense senior vice president Erik Daehler said the goal is getting supplies to the warfighter when needed.
why it matters
The tests are an incremental step toward Sierra Space's first orbital Ghost mission, Tenacity, for which the company said Sept. 2 it has signed unnamed national-security and commercial customers; a working point-to-point orbital delivery vehicle would give the Pentagon and commercial logistics buyers a new alternative to airlift.
for who
Defense logistics buyers, in-space services operators
signal-to-noise
quick facts
- Companies
- Sierra Space
- Category
- product
- Impact
- notable
- SNR
- 4 / 5
- Event date
- 2026-09-10
- Published
- 2026-09-10 17:31 UTC